


17 Years

by Lothlorienx



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans (Comics), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Angst, Azarath, Comfort/Angst, Demons, Flashbacks, Gen, Heavy Angst, Horror, Hurt, Suspense, The End, The Prophecy - Freeform, Tragedy, Trauma, birthmark, the gem
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 16:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 69,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4794023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothlorienx/pseuds/Lothlorienx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is Raven's first birthday after Trigon was defeated. She should be happy; this will be the first birthday that isn't the end of the world. But still, Raven can't help but feel it's happening all over again...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Raven did not fear anything. She had overcome every fear she had ever known, and she was determined to do so with everything that scared her. She did well maintaining her fears, and keeping the fearful side of her under control. Most of all, she never feared the unknown.

Fearing the unknown was the worst and most ludicrous fear that she had ever encountered. She did not fear the unknown. At least, that is what she believed. The unknown had always excited her, made her a strange kind of happy. But not this time.

Raven looked out from the large window of her bedroom, scanning the city skyline carefully, with the darkening sky above and the already dark ocean below it. Jump City, the city in which she lived and protected. Her home, in every sense of the word.

From her position, floating cross-legged above the floor, she shifted her eyes around, trying to avoid the marked calendar. In her fits of rage and confusion, the marking on the calendar always came back to her, and that much she hated. She wanted to forget it, to push it all away from her, away into some void so far distant from her. But she couldn't. It was always coming back to her, weighing on her mind.

She scanned the skyline again, watching as the scenery darkened with sunset. A thousand colors reached her eyes, but she cared for none of them. Even the beauty upon which she looked could not distract her from her approaching, unknown fear.

Raven swallowed, hard, closing her eyes and drifting off into the darkness that she loved. Trying to block it all out, and empty her mind. But to no avail. With a frustrated yell, she let her dark magic surge free from her, tearing across the room. The curtains flew closed, casting her in darkness, along with shredding the calendar, the scraps laying at her feet.

It made her feel better, but only a little. Not enough to calm her.

I need to get out of here, Raven thought.

Glumly, she fled from her room, darting into the gray hallways of the Titans Tower. No one was around; she couldn't sense anyone near her. She took a deep, cleansing breath, trying to calm her nerves. Inside of her, tension was building, winding up inside and putting far too much stress within her. She could feel her powers responding to the tension, ready to snap, launch out and destroy.

Raven walked down the hallways absent-mindedly, trying to clear her head. The tapping of her feet against the metal drowned almost everything else out. The pattern helped to focus her mind and let her thoughts tap out to a certain, precise rhythm in her mind.

Still, a dreaded feeling was in her.

Deep down, she knew it was ridiculous, to be reacting this way. But she didn't know what else to do. That cursed day was closing in on her again.

Her birthday.

And it seemed so stupid to her to be reacting this way. She had defeated Trigon, imprisoned him far into that void that she would never reach. The Prophecy had been fulfilled, never to reach her again, never to return. But still, why did she feel like this?

In her mind, a voice said to her, Because it is a cursed day.

"Raven?" a voice said timidly.

It broke Raven's thoughts completely, making them scatter as she turned to face Starfire. Raven tried to work up a smile to give her friend, but she just couldn't. She felt terrible, like her heart was sitting in her stomach, and it made smiling difficult for her. She gave up the attempt.

Starfire walked forward, and put a hand on Raven's shoulder.

"Do you not wish to speak of it?"

Raven only shook her head, and pulled free of her grasp. "No," she said. "I don't wanna talk about it." She turned and began walking down the hallways alone. She didn't hear footsteps, but knew that Starfire followed her. She could sense her coming near...and she welcomed it, to a point.

Starfire grabbed Raven's shoulder, and spun her around.

Her deep green eyes were filled with concern.

"Raven, please…"

"I'm sorry, Star," Raven replied. Her voice was gentler than she had been expecting. "I just really want to be alone right now."

"But Raven," Starfire replied, putting her hand to Raven's cheek, "I thought that being alone was not something that you wished for."

Raven couldn't argue with that. Being alone was one of her worst fears, something that crept up on her no matter what the circumstances. She had pictured that all her life: being alone for the rest of her life, trying to keep others at a distance to protect them. But being alone brought an odd comfort to her. Not having to worry about being strung out in front of other people, ready for them to judge and pick apart. Ready to do…

She cut her thoughts off.

She would not-would not-think about those days back in Azarath. No peace of mind would come from that. Not those specific memories at least.

"You're right, I don't wish for that," Raven said at last. Looking back up into Starfire's eyes, she said, "Is there something you wanted?'

Starfire shook her head. "No, but Robin said he wanted to see us all. Right away. So I came to this proximity looking for you. And Cyborg went to look for Beast Boy."

"Oh," was the only thing Raven could say.

It was a quiet night at Titans Tower, even as the five of them gathered round in the main room. Raven looked out the giant windows, marveling at the beauty of the city. The sky was darkening with dusk and clouds hung in the sky. Not only was the sky amazing, but the water too; it reflected the amazing hues back, and amongst all this color was the dark skyline of Jump City.

The city she protected.

The thought kept circling around in her mind as Robin spoke on, talking about the recent activity showing up on the scanners. Despite all the peace and calm surrounding her, in this particular moment, she still had worries. Worries were itching in the back of her mind, and though she had tried meditating off and on today and many more days, they kept returning.

She scanned the skyline of Jump City once again before returning to look at Robin, still talking steadily about the scanners' activity. Cyborg looked like he was about to jump into the conversation at any moment, but said nothing. Instead he had a perplexed look about it that kept him gnawing at his lip.

"Robin?" Cyborg finally said, cutting him off. "I know there has been an increase in crime this past week or so, but I gotta tell you, last night I found out that the scanners were malfunctioning—"

"Malfunctioning?" Starfire asked. "Why? Are they not supposed to be the best of the scanners?"

"Well, they are Starfire, but still they're malfunctioning—or have been malfunctioning—and I don't know why. I picked it up just the other day ago when I was doing all the usual tests, but who knows how long that's gone on before I found the problem."

Robin spoke up: "But still, there has been an increase in crime, by at least ten percent."

Raven leaned back into her chair, crossing her arms. All the while, she listened to her friends discuss everything. She was reluctant to say anything, because she knew the only thing that she could talk about was the cursed day that was coming. Every birthday of hers had been cursed, even long before Trigon finally branded her as the gem. Ever since she was little, terrible things always happened on her birthday.

Always.

She had hoped that this year would not be like those of the past. That she would finally be free of it, but with the way things were looking now, it did not seem to be that way. Already things were starting to look grim; malfunctioning scanners, an increase in crime…

Raven closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply.

A cursed day.

"Okay, is there anything else going on?" Robin asked after a long pause.

"Well," Starfire said, shifting her eyes over to Raven, "there is one other thing happening this week."

Raven opened her eyes to find everyone looking at her, all of them wearing mixed emotions on their face. She hated it when they all looked at her like that. "I don't want to talk about it," was all she said, keeping her voice flat and emotionless. With another deep sigh, she got up from the table, heading to the kitchen to make herself herbal tea. That always calmed her.

"Why not?" came Robin's voice. "You defeated Trigon, remember? Why are you unhappy about this year?" He paused, waiting for Raven to respond, which she didn't. She only focused on pouring her tea. "The Prophecy has been fulfilled…"

"Stop!" Raven shouted, spinning around to look at all of them again.

Starfire's eyes caught her own. Raven could tell by the look in them that Starfire understood, knew what was going on. Tilting her head to the side, Raven said, "I just don't like my birthday."

At all.

A long quiet followed before they spoke again.

"Okay, we understand," said Robin, and turned his attention back towards the monitors. They still glowed slightly red. "Besides, we've got a ten percent crime increase to worry about."

Raven bit her lip, and walked away.

Cyborg took Robin's place at the monitors, quickly fixing them with skill that only he possessed. The rest of the team merely watched, trying to figure out what exactly he was doing but hadn't an inkling of what that was. Before two minutes had passed, Cyborg had fixed the monitors. The red flashing lights stilled, glowing faintly green instead and then dying off the screen, bleeding into the dull grey landscape map they commonly used.

"So—there's no crime happening now?" Cyborg asked, stunned.

"Either way, there has been an increase," Robin said. He didn't actually believe that there was no crime happening now, but without the monitors he couldn't do anything. Clenching his fist, he continued, "So we have to be prepared, no matter what."

Cyborg nodded his head in silent agreement before turning back to the dull glow of the screens.

"If there is no crime," Starfire said, a cheery tone to her voice, "then that means we shall get good sleep tonight, yes?" There was a general agreement to that statement.

Beast Boy slung an arm around her playfully, saying, "You bet! I've been waiting for a good night's sleep forever!" He droned on and on to her, making her smile even more.

"The only reason you haven't been getting a good night's sleep is because you stay up all night played those damn video games," Cyborg said to Beast Boy, cutting him off. Starfire only smiled wider as the argument between the two started to heat up.

"Hey!" said Beast Boy, "that is so not true! I have a healthy obsession with video games! Unlike you!"

"Unlike me?!" Cyborg asked, finally spinning around from the monitors. "Dude, I have the best sleep out of everyone here! Like a baby. No, better than a baby! I sleep so well that you could give me a rock for a mattress, and I'd still sleep well."

Robin ignored them all.

His concerns still focused around Raven. His brows knitted together as he thought back to Raven's last birthday. He knew it would take time to heal, that things like that didn't just die away. The end of the world wasn't just a footnote to be scribbled down, it was something that would stay in your mind forever. No matter what. Until the day you die, and even then that wouldn't be a guarantee of peace. But, amongst all this, was a spark of confusion.

Why was she so adamant against celebrating?

She didn't like parties, that much he could remember her saying. It seemed reasonable enough, for her to still be reacting like that. But still, she seemed like she was walking on eggshells the entire time. Like every movement had to be calculated. Raven was stressed, he could sense it easily enough, and he wondered why.

"Perhaps you should go talk to her."

All Robin's thoughts were cut off as Starfire hovered over him, her voice like a knife to the fog of mind. He hadn't even noticed her floating right before him, lost in thought as he was.

He coughed. "Maybe…" he said aloud.

"Robin," Starfire continued, placing a hand upon his shoulder and landing her feet upon the ground, "you and I both know what it is like to come from a difficult family, and what it is like to go through something traumatic. You and I both can understand that well enough."

Robin nodded, and gave her a weak smile. "Knowing that," Robin said, "she won't want to talk about this anytime soon."

She wants to be alone.

_________________________________________________

Raven wanted to snap.

But she didn't. Instead, she inhaled deeply and closed her eyes.

They're my friends, she told herself as she summoned her powers. The black magic started dancing around her body, encircling her completely, and she phased through the hard steel of her bedroom door. With the mood she was in, she didn't want to bother with opening it.

They're my friends, and I trust them. I trust them with my life.

She faced the large window of her bedroom again, the curtains opening, and she gazed out towards Jump City's skyline.

The colors she had seen before had dimmed as the night darkened, all of them replaced by dull blues and purples and a creeping black. That made her happier; she loved the night. Fondly, she remembered how her friends loved to tease her about being a creature of the night, or a mistress of the night, or some variation of that.

She sighed again, and tried meditating some more.

Like so many times before now, she came to a peaceful place. Something hard to believe considering the bad luck within the past week she'd had. Her thoughts started to calm within her, and her nerves felt soothed.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she kept repeating to herself.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos,

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos,

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos,"

Peace. Calm. Quiet. Safe. Perfect.

She lost herself within her own realm, chanting the words ceaselessly. Stars came around her, in her state of mind, shining in the darkness. She floated, weightless and free over her small meteor. The place that she knew so well. She couldn't call it home, for it didn't feel like she thought a home should feel, but it was where she could go when nothing else could help her.

She heard a door opening, the electronics sensors sliding it open. But no footsteps. Starfire. Raven knew immediately. Another year ago, she would have been bother by the intrusion, especially at this time of year, but now she was indifferent to it.

"Raven?" Starfire said timidly.

"Yes?" Raven answered, not bothering to open her eyes. She had stopped chanting though, wanting to hear what Starfire would say.

"Robin told me not to come. He said that you wanted to be alone, and that I should not disturb you. But Raven," Starfire said uneasily, "I know this still might not be a good time for you. With what happened last birthday you had, I can understand how you are feeling. But please! Know that we all want this year to be different." She paused.

Raven waited for her to say more. She opened her eyes as Starfire remained quiet. Her feet dropped back onto the floor, and she left her calming meditative space behind her.

Starfire stood before her, a small smile playing upon her face. She seemed as bright as ever, as though she had never felt any despair in her life. Raven knew that was an improbable thought, but still she had to wonder what Starfire was truly like. She was always be happy, always able to find joy and peace. How, Raven didn't know. She assumed she might never know. Personality seemed to her completely random, and Starfire was blessed with happiness and peace of mind.

Starfire was about to say more to her, but Raven couldn't bear to listen. "Starfire, please—" she cut her off. "Robin was right. I really do wish to be alone."

Starfire nodded, sadly, and left her alone within her room.

Raven sighed.

Forgetting everything else for the day, she stripped off her uniform and fell into her bed. It was cold but still welcoming. With enough stress from the day, she finally got the chance to fully relax, if only for a few hours. Raven crawled beneath the covers, falling down onto the mattress and pillows, and fell asleep instantly.

________________________________________

Raven awoke from a restful sleep, still cold but for the most part contented. She gathered the blankets around her, savoring the comfort. Closing her eyes again, she let herself drift off again, sleeping for just a few more moments before she had to get up.

When the sunlight started hitting her eyes, even as she tried to block it out, Raven knew it was time for her to get up.

With a groan, she pushed herself up out of bed, stretching as she did so. Like she did every morning, she did her stretches and opened the Book of Azar, scanning the words on the page sleepily. Just as she was about to turn to the next chapter, she stopped short, and closed the Book of Azar, noticing for the first time the new, dark fabric that lay on top of the tangled sheets of her bed. The deepest, darkest black seemed to shine at her, drawing her eyes into it.

Raven went over and picked the thing up.

Unfolding the dark black fabric, she held out the garment to see that it was a cloak. It looked much like all her other cloaks, as far as construction in sewing went. But this one was different in an eerie way. Yes, the color was different; not to mention odd, the way it just seemed to absorb all light, but the way it seemed to slightly shimmer as she turned it.

She felt puzzled.

If this cloak is made of black so dark, why does it shimmer? Even in dim lighting?

Still holding the cloak out to examine it, she walked over to her giant window where the rays of sun were coming through on the East side. The fabric did not seem any lighter in color, nor did it shimmer. Not even a little bit. Still she felt puzzled.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…" she whispered, and lit the cloak up with her magic.

The cloak responded to the dark energy. She could sense it; the cloak was magical.

None of her other cloaks were magical; she used magic on them and bent them to her will, but they were always nothing more than simple cloaks, clothes that anyone could have. The only thing that had made her cloaks special was that most of them she had brought from Azarath. The cloaks made in Azarath were her most cherished, and the best out of all of them.

But this cloak was filled with dark energy, similar to hers. She thought for a moment of her powers and of Azarathian looms, but nothing seemed to come to her. She used her powers on it again, probing slightly deeper this time. The cloak was very powerful, for a cloak.

A strange and powerful black cloak had appeared out of nowhere, landing on her bed, mimicking her own powers, and reminding Raven of Azarath. It was all so strange to her.

______________________________________________

Robin had stayed up most of the night, though he had promised not to. He had been sitting at the monitors, drifting in and out of sleep as he watched the screen, scanning and blinking and utterly vacant. Cyborg had said he had fixed the problem, and Robin was sure he had. But he was determined to make sure it stayed that way.

And to make sure no other crime was happening.

Robin was so lost in his work, his eyes so strained from watching the monitors, that he hadn't noticed the first rays of light piercing through the dimmed windows.

That was how Cyborg found him, early in the morning. Hunched over the computers, his mask off and laying on the table, leaving his red-rimmed and bloodshot eyes exposed. Upon seeing this, Cyborg only shook his head. He knew how obsessive Robin could be, but still he hated seeing him like this.

He clenched a hand around Robin's shoulder, startling him out of his zombie-like state.

"Cyborg," Robin said, giving a him a weak smile.

"I thought you said you weren't going to stay up all night," Cyborg replied.

Robin just shook it off, pushing Cyborg's hand off of him and turning back to the screens. "I didn't stay up all night—I got some sleep." He yawned, and leaned back in his chair.

"How much sleep?" Cyborg asked him.

"Couple of hours." Spinning back around, Robin saw the hard, disapproving look Cyborg wore on his face. He sighed, knowing exactly what Cyborg was thinking. "Cyborg, trust me. I'm fine."

Cyborg knew it was pointless to keep the conversation going.

The sliding of the electronic doors made them both spin around. Raven entered, wearing her simple blue cloak. She made no attempt to say hello to them; she only went straight to the kitchen and starting brewing herself a cup of hot tea.

Robin spun back around.

"Will you please take a break from the monitors?" Cyborg asked him calmly.

"He's been up all night again?" Raven asked from the kitchen. She walked over to them, the cup of tea steaming hot. As she stood next to Cyborg, the steam fogged his electronics, and he had to keep wiping it away. Both of them looked down at Robin, who was determined not to look up at them.

Finally, after a few awkward minutes of this, he gave up.

"Alright, fine, I'm sorry," Robin said to them.

Neither of them said anything.

He sighed, continuing on. "Look, tonight I'll get a good night's rest. In bed, the entire time. No looking at the monitors." Still, Raven and Cyborg seemed unconvinced.

"The crime rates are still up?" Raven asked in a quiet voice.

Robin nodded.

"You know what's weird?" Robin asked with another yawn. "It's almost always during this time of year things start to get hectic. Don't know why, but it's right around now that things start to get crazy, in whatever way possible. Sometimes it's crime, sometimes it's wild parties, sometimes its a whole bunch of unexplainable weird events…"

Raven gulped her tea.

A cursed day.

The reminder chilled her, but she fought against it. She chided herself for being so worried over a day that no longer prophesied the end of the world, but she felt afraid no matter how she tried to reason with herself. It was a growing feeling, the knot in her stomach, as they got closer to the anniversary. She felt a dark knot of nerves tighten in her stomach every time she thought about it.

She told no one about the new cloak that had suddenly appeared within her room, but Raven never made much conversation, so her quietness went unnoticed. Raven took another big gulp of her tea, still thinking about the black cloak that had appeared in her room, and where it had come from, and about the increased crime rate.

More than anything, she wondered about Trigon.


	2. Chapter 2

Cyborg was cooking breakfast. The scent of sausages and maple rose up to meet Raven as Cyborg flipped them over in the pan. A sizzling sound came from that, making Cyborg grin.

Beast Boy was nowhere to be seen. Raven was not sure that she should have been feeling happy about that, but she was. Anything that could get Beast Boy away from her she was happy about, even if it was only for a short time. She was hoping for some peace and quiet this breakfast, and unfortunately she seemed to be getting her wish so far.

Even with the friendly conversation, the stressless routine they were falling into, they all seemed to be walking on eggshells. They knew that this calm was only some kind of illusion, waiting to be broken into bits by whatever horrors the future would deliver. But they could do nothing but wait for it to play out, and they all knew it, as much as they hated it. There was nothing they could do but wait out the calm before the storm, deal with the anxious feeling bubbling inside of them all. The could only wait.

At the table, Robin and Starfire sat together. Starfire's legs were stretched out onto Robin's lap, and she was telling him a story about a river on Tamaran. Robin was listening well enough, but Raven could see the lack of sleep wearing him down. The way his eyes dropped every now and then behind the mask, and the lull of his head. Starfire might have noticed, but she paid no attention to it and continued on.

"The water was oddly sticky," she was saying, moving her hands with her words. "I got stuck in the river water for over an hour while everyone else was saying that I should learn to be a stronger swimmer."

"Did you become a stronger swimmer?" Robin asked.

Starfire nodded and smiled. "Thanks to that river, I can now able to out swim even a borgobellen!"

Raven wanted to ask what a borgobellen was, but decided against it. She probably didn't want to know, anyway. Instead, she sipped down her herbal tea, and slowly ate at the sausages that Cyborg had placed on the table for them.

Beast Boy was still missing from the table. Not that Raven was complaining.

Cyborg, on the other hand, felt the need to comment on it. "I'm guessing Beast Boy isn't showing up anytime soon," he said, stuffing a sausage into his mouth. "Normally, he'd be jumping all over the kitchen and inhaling that tofu of his." Cyborg exaggerated sickness at the stuff before shrugging it off and continuing with his breakfast as normal.

Normal talk seemed to be difficult for them all. Even Starfire's story came to an abrupt end, and to get Raven to talk at all during this time was nearly impossible. Raven only drank her tea and picked at her food. Her body seemed abuzz with nerves, restlessly disturbing her.

Why play this game?

An uncomfortable silence filled the air with all their unspoken worries. But none of them knew what to say, nor what they could say to ease the uncomfortable air. They didn't want to let it be, but they really didn't have any choice. Starfire picked around at her sausages, which she had drowned in mustard and club soda. Cyborg had made disgusted expression at that, too, back when things weren't so tense. Hard to believe that now.

"Soooo," said Cyborg, taking it upon himself to break the silence. "You've got a pretty big day coming up."

That didn't help in the least. The second the words left his mouth, he regretted them. A new sense of foreboding hit them all, and the stress was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.

For Raven, the reminder chilled her, but she fought against it.

"Yes, I do," Raven replied in monotone.

Now that the conversation had started, neither of them seemed able to end it. No matter how bad it felt.

"Got any...plans?" Cyborg asked her. He clenched his jaw before taking a long drink of orange juice. Cyborg knew she didn't have any plans, and Raven knew that he knew. But it was how generic conversations went.

"No."

"That is nice," Cyborg said. "Considering—"

"Considering what?!" Raven snapped, making them all jump. "Considering what my birthdays are usually like? Considering what happened last year?" The words came from her mouth like a torrent of water, Raven unable to stop them until she bit down on her tongue. Shifting her eyes around the table, she saw what she had done. They all stared at her wide-eyed. "Sorry," she mumbled. She chewed on her lip until the taste of blood hit her tongue.

Raven took another big gulp of her tea, her thoughts wandering back to the black cloak that had appeared in her room. More than anything, she wondered where it had come from. What it could do. The mysterious new cloak weighed down on her thoughts now. She was grateful, for it gave her something else to focus on.

The nervous quietness couldn't last forever. And finally, it shattered as the alarm sounded.

Red lights flashing and a loud, deep siren piercing the air, making them all jump. For all they had been on edge, this is what they had been waiting for. This was what they knew should be happening.

Over the intercom, Beast Boy's voice was heard. "Everyone! May I have your attention, please?"

Like we have any other choice? Raven thought.

"Now that Cyborg now has the monitors sorta-kinda-maybe working, I just got this thing beeping at me right here that says something in all that techno-lingo that Cyborg talks…" Everyone's eyes shifted around as they waited for Beast Boy to get to the point. Raven licked at the blood on her lips, listening impatiently to his ramblings. "Well, basically, we're getting some kind of call from someone unknown, pinpointing this spot on the map where we're needed…"

"On with it, Beast Boy!" Cyborg groaned.

"Okay, okay…" he said. "A red alert is showing we're needed somewhere out by some mysterious-looking forest area or something like that."

Robin had already pulled up the monitors in the main room, checking them over again and again. Immediately, all the systems and maps and navigations and sonars were up on the giant screens, but they still seemed to be troubled. Glitches flashed over the screens, and the alert that Beast Boy said he had located was wavering all over the place.

"Look, I'm being completely honest, it was right there!" Beast Boy shouted into the intercom.

Raven winced at the sound.

"Trust me on this," Beast Boy said again, now walking into the main room with the rest of them. Apparently, his side of the monitoring system had started to malfunction as well. "Trust me, it was working just a little while ago, it was working perfectly. Come on, guys, you gotta believe me."

For a while, no one said anything, they all stayed put, anxiously waiting for anything, until Robin's voice broke in. "We do believe you, Beast Boy. And you are onto something." He turned in looked into Beast Boy's stunned face. "I think you're right."

At Robin's words, his face broke into a wide smile.

Robin spun back to the monitors, and pointed. "The red marks may be wavering, but in between the flickers I can pinpoint the area. They all seem to fixate on this—" he tapped at the screen, "—location." They all leaned in close. "That's where we're going." His tone was serious.


	3. Chapter 3

Dark, black magic consumed Raven, engulfing her being and transforming her into a monstrous black raven, shaped by her powers. Raven flew to the markings. The black magic covered her body and faded her within the blink of an eye, and she was gone quicker than the rest of her teammates could've hoped to be.

Jump City lay ahead of her, the ocean below her. The sky was a serene blue, ocean waves were gently lapping on the surface, spraying with the smallest breeze. The day looked peaceful enough. The skyline stood before Raven.

Into the city she flew, the high rises towering around her. She flew up higher and higher, then regained her human form. Her hands trembled, and her legs felt like they were about to give out beneath her. She calmed herself as best she could, but she knew that it wasn't something she could control. She stood on the edge of a roof on one of the high buildings. Spinning around slowly, she looked out across the bay and could see the giant T of Titans Tower, sitting on its small island in the middle of the waters, both overseeing everything and protecting everything.

Swallowing hard, she prodded at the clasp of her cloak until her fumbling fingers locked onto her communicator. She turned it on, the screen flashing to life, and she pressed the tracking button, wanting to see where the rest of her teammates were. They had gotten almost as far as she had' they were in the city, speeding towards wherever.

Raven still had doubts about the claims to this 'calling', as Beast Boy had put it.

But still, it seemed natural enough, for so strange a calling to happen on such cursed days. She swallowed hard again, then ended the connection that she had with the rest of them, leaving her alone on the roof.

She surveyed the world around her, taking in the scenery completely. Titans Tower in the middle of an array of blues, and the ocean that led into the city, where high rises and small commercial and residential buildings were all a part of one another, bleeding into the next. Spinning around, she looked far past the city, imagining the open woods that lay somewhere beyond the artifice and concrete.

She checked her communicator again, switching to the map and locating the blinking red mark Robin had pinpointed for all of them, then took off, flying as her black powers consumed her, the false raven wings silently beating across the sky.

Raven's speed was beyond compare; from the perch on the high rises in the density of the city to the outskirts of the forest, she was there within an instant. Still within her birdlike form, she dipped lower into the sky until the green leaves that barred the forest below cracked and snapped against the glowing black feet. Dipping below the green roof of the forest, she dove down, flying directly through trees, her bright white eyes searching for anything that looked promising, but she could see nothing but the normal debris and forest life around her. It was that thought that made Raven end her search.

Within a single, fluid motion, Raven appeared in her true form, her cloak spinning around her as she changed. Her feet touched down on the ground softly, not even making a sound. Her eyes shifted around uncertainly, and she took a few steps forward, rounded a few trees.

With a sigh, she took out her Titans communicator and pulled up the navigation feature. The bright red dot still flashed at her, pinpointing the exact location. On the map, she could see the small R that indicated her, and it looked so close.

"Raven?"

Spinning around, Raven could see Starfire floating down to meet her. She gave her friend a small smile, closing the communicator.

"You did not happen to find anything here, did you?" she asked Starfire, gesturing to the open woods before her.

She shook her head.

"I had flown in circles around, but I could not find anything akin to that someone's message. Granted, it should be hidden but—"

"But wouldn't I be able to sense it?" Raven finished for her.

She pondered this for a second, then shook her head. "I might not be able to sense it if its really far away." Pause. "Maybe Robin pinpointed the wrong location?"

"Speaking of Robin, where are the others?" Starfire asked.

"They're probably still on their way here," Raven said, waving her off.

But still…

She pulled out her communicator again, while Starfire floated over to her, looking over her shoulder. She flicked at the touch screen, sending off messages to all of her teammates. Starfire's began to beep, but she silenced it. None of them seemed to be answering. Static was clogging the messaging systems. Which wasn't normal.

"I know Beast Boy could not take the call, seeing as he is currently a bird, but should not the others respond to your messaging?" Starfire asked her.

The question seemed innocent enough, but it put Raven on the edge. In her mind, she went over what Cyborg had said about satellites and radio frequencies and global positioning. None of it made much sense to her, so she decided to put it from her mind. She knew she was overthinking everything, and it was beginning to get old.

"Starfire," Raven said, turning towards her friend, "let's just look for this alert."

Starfire looked like she was about to say something more, but she remained silent. After a moment's hesitation, she shook her head, yes, and went with Raven, tracking down the still blinking location.

The woods were alive with sounds; birds singing their forever lasting songs, all melding into one another, and the creatures that never seemed to sleep were making echoes throughout the air. Though Starfire and Raven walked quietly, their feet hardly even touching the ground, they still snapped the occasional twig. Starfire nearly tripped over a thick, protruding tree root in the ground, popping up like a flooded vein.

"That is a large root!" Starfire exclaimed, before following Raven.

"It is," Raven had to agree.

They threaded through the trees, fanning out and then regrouping. That was when the realization struck Raven, hitting at the back of her mind and seeping forward to her conscious. This looks familiar, thought Raven as she came upon a heavily knotted black tree. The tree was thick, the roots giant-like, sinking deep into the soil of the Earth. I know this place!

"Star…" she stuttered, about to speak of this discovery.

But never got the chance, for Starfire's communicator started going off, finally homing in on Robin and the others. Raven's words were cut off before she had the chance to say anything.

The screen buzzed to life, with Robin's worn face appearing on the screen.

"Robin!" Starfire gasped. "You have reconnected to the communication systems! Have you—"

Robin cut her off. "Did you two find anything there in the woods?" he asked. His voice sounded urgent, and he kept glancing away, focused on something off screen.

"No, we did not," Starfire replied.

"So nothing? Absolutely nothing in the woods that you could find?"

"That is correct," Starfire said with a nod.

"Okay then. Look, we need you guys over here. Cyborg and I crashed on the highway leading out of town and we came across several robberies in progress, all by very new HIVE members. We need you guys over here." Without another word, he clicked his screen off and gave them the coordinates, onto both of their communicators.

Starfire and Raven took to the sky, slowly, watching the beeping red to see if it would stay steady. Which it did.

"It is thankful that we did not see anything here," Starfire said, flying along next to Raven.

Raven would have to agree with that.

With nothing there, she could focus on more familiar settings. The HIVE was always something that the Titans members knew well, and they shouldn't be a problem. Raven knew as much. Several robberies all at once? That wouldn't be a problem at all.

The team of two arrived to a mess.

The robberies of banks and jewelry stores had gone terribly, and now diamonds and broken glass littered the streets, both looking so similar to each other as they glinted in the light of the sun. The green of the paper money had exploded like confetti; gold bars had been thrown like bricks. Few of the HIVE members were scraping up the gold bars, which had burst through nearby windows and shattered glass everywhere. They scraped to pick it up, as well as shove what they hoped to be diamonds away with them. Picking up broken glass instead had given too many of them bloody fingers.

Raven and Starfire's arrival seemed to have turned the tables in their favor.

Until…

A bloodied hand reached through the gemstones and glass, picking out a large triangular shard from the debris of the pavement. As they did so, they thumbed through a litter of diamonds and rubies and emeralds that had fallen to their feet, collecting a fistful of them and raindrop sized glass shards. Pocketing the loot, they moved forward.

Raven's black powers struck out, capturing and subduing all she could. They came at her randomly, no pattern or thought to whatever scheme they may have once had.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she cried, the strength of her powers flowing from her veins and capturing the HIVE member just aching to smack her. Between all the action and drama of the scene, she didn't sense anyone behind her until their foot kicked her on her back. Her concentration broke and she was sent flying. Ignoring the new cuts and bruises on her body, she surged forward again, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," on her lips once more.

Then the scream…

The blood-chilling scream filled the air, horrifying to hear. It stopped all action, and few couldn't resist to put their hands to their ears in desperate attempt to block out the anguished sound of pure pain, vocalized by such a scream.

In what seemed like a dream, a hundred seconds packed into a single hair-split moment, Raven spun around just to see the shard of broken glass sunk into Robin's chest.

He screamed again and collapsed onto the ground, clutching at the large shard sticking out of his chest. Blood spurted between his gloved fingers, staining the green of his uniform a dark red. Eventually his scream turned into a low-throated continuous groan of pain. The world spun around him, and his head seemed in a daze. All he could feel was the dagger of glass sunk into his chest.

His friends all rushing to his side, crying out his name.

Raven said to herself, "No."


	4. Chapter 4

A raven was perched at the window sill, still and quiet. Observing all around it. It heard the groans of pain and the screams, and the occasional soothing sounds from the doctors and midwives. The raven's black, beady eyes were focused on Arella, sobbing and in a great deal of pain, despite the medicine.

"You are doing well," said a nearby woman, holding her hand.

Arella gripped down tightly on the woman's hand, her body jerking forward again and her skin flushing red with pressure. Her knuckles were turning white, and her face reddening even more. Sweat was running down her face in small rivulets.

Another woman reached forward to pat her forehead with a small towel, before putting it back in a jar full of water. The water had been altered with some of their Azarathian spells, making it cleaner and safer. More healing power within the water they were using to help Arella through the painful birth that she was suffering through.

The raven simply looked on.

When the contraction ended, Arella paused, breathing deeply to the point of hyperventilation. The woman who still clutched her hand leaned forward, attempting to steady her breathing. Her hands had moved to her back and to her chest, calming her with whatever power she had within her. Eventually, the pained look upon Arella's face was eased, though tears still streamed down her face, along with sweat.

Azar was there. The Azar. The one with the most mystic power, and the one with the most medicinal skills; she was the one who was delivering the baby—or rather, helping Arella to deliver the baby.

She was easing the pain just enough so that it wasn't terrible, but not too much that Arella could not properly feel and respond to the contractions that were wracking her body. Azar knew that if she made her numb to the pain, she would not know the right time to push.

"That raven has been here the entire time," Azar said quietly. "All five hours."

Arella groaned again as she felt another contraction clench at her body. Knowing what to do, she leaned forward and pushed again, hoping that this time it would be over. She tried and she tried, but it was still another hour before the baby had been delivered. When the baby finally emerged, quiet and still on the bedsheets beneath her, Arella didn't know that she had been delivered. She made to push again, to constrict her muscles in a desperate attempt to get the baby out.

"Arella!" said one of the midwives, "Your baby. She is here!"

Arella collapsed back on the pillows with a sob, tears streaming down her face and her whole body aching, blood flowing freely from her veins while the other midwife attempted to heal her. She was tired, so horribly tired, and she felt like she could have slept forever and ever after having gone through childbirth. Her legs trembled, and her body still had phantom contractions that pained her. A midwife swept Arella's wet hair out of her eyes. Arella panted and heaved, asking for water and for the pain to stop.

"It is female," said another woman, standing next to Azar, who held the newborn in her hands.

The baby didn't make a sound; didn't cry or gurgle or anything. Silent as a mouse.

"Is something wrong with her?" Arella asked.

Azar shook her head, and cleaned off the blood within the healing water before swaddling the baby in soft white blankets. Once this was done, she handed Arella her daughter, and Arella cradled her happily in her arms.

She was born with the gemstone on her forehead, the one that identified her to Azarath. Holding her head up, Arella could see thin purple hair sprouting from her scalp, still damp from the bathing water and birthing fluid. She had yet to open her eyes, but was already making suckling motion with her lips, eager for milk. Arella held the baby close to her breast, cradling her in her arms and looking down at her with tears of joy. Her daughter. 

"My daughter," Arella whispered, awestruck.

She put a single finger to the baby's tiny lips, and she sucked on that, thinking it would give her milk. When she got nothing, the baby stopped sucking and opened her mouth, revealing a small row of sharp teeth. Arella's eyes widened as she saw that; a baby shouldn't be born with teeth, and especially not fangs. But, Arella reminded herself, this was a daughter of Trigon. Her ex-husband, her rapist, her most-hated enemy.

"What shall you name the child?" a woman asked, leaning in close to look at the newborn.

Her voice pulled Arella from her thoughts. She saw the baby's face again, clearly, her mouth now closed and her lips pursed, looking as innocent as could be. Arella thought for a moment. "Raven," she said then, thinking to the raven perched on the window sill, who had watched and waited the entire birth and still sat there. It had to been a sign, she knew. The people of Azar believed in signs, and she did too now.

If only…

"Raven," she said again, naming her child.

Upon hearing her new name, Raven at last opened her eyes. Causing almost everyone in the room to gasp in horror; everyone save for Azar. Raven had beautiful purple eyes, and four of them.

"So she has her father's eyes," Arella said sadly.

"No," Azar whispered. "Purple eyes are of Azarath."

Raven shifted her four eyes around slowly, surveying the room. But when she finally allowed them to focus on her mother's face, she smiled brightly. Arella grinned and clutched her daughter closer to her chest, hugging her, already filled with love for her Raven. Not her teeth nor eyes could make Arella hate her. The baby cooed softly, tiny fists reached forward in the white blanket that swaddled her, reaching for her mother.

"Four eyes or two eyes, it does not matter," Azar told her calmly. Her words were calming, and her voice soothing. She knew how to speak perfectly right, to put Arella at ease. Arella trusted these words. "She is of Azarath, and all of Azarath is the same."

Just as comfort had been given to Arella, it was so easily ripped away at that moment. There was a loud knock on the door, and a gruff voice spoke through it. The voice was hazy to Arella's ears, but she could hear the anger and fear seeping into their voice. She held Raven protectively, knowing that she was the subject of this outburst.

Azar stood up and marched towards the door, the door opening before her and sliding back shut at the absence of her presence. Arella knew that she was wrapped in another argument, and she looked down at her daughter sadly.

She loved Raven so much, and she didn't want any harm to come to her.

The three women by her bedside sat on either side of her, trying to comfort her with their words. But it all rang dull in Arella's ears.

She knew that even with the protection of Azar and all of Azarath, her half-demon child would still have a hard and difficult life in front of her. More tears streaked down her face, but this time it was out of sadness instead of happiness or pain. Raven looked so innocent to her eyes; how could anyone think this child evil?

She sighed and leaned back on the bed, still cradling Raven.

The bird raven still sat at the window's ledge, watching everything play out and listening to the far off sounds of angered voices both trying to raise over one another. Ravens, highly intelligent birds by nature, could sense what was happening.

Dispute.

Spreading its silky black wings, the raven flapped into the room, perching nearer on a table before flocking over even closer. It was testing its boundaries, and since no one made to remove it, the raven flocked closer ever still. They all seemed to know this raven had no ill will. From all they knew, the raven was friendly, and had taken a special interest in the newborn. The bird got as close as it dared, and stared down into four violet eyes, looking at the baby curiously. Twitching its head back and forth, the raven took in full sight of the child.

Healthy and well enough. Happy and oblivious to the yelling just outside the room.

After all the long hours the bird had spent watching over this room, it finally flocked away just as Azar stormed back into the room. Her good mood had vanished, but she still remained calm and collected.

"The raven has left," she said in a deflated tone.

Walking back to the bed, closing her eyes, she said as she sat down, "Something special has happened. I am sure of it."

"What was the ruckus about?" the woman to Arella's left asked.

Azar glared.

"Nothing important," she said. "Leave the care to me." As the words left her mouth, she instantly regretted it. Her mouth had become set in a thin line, and she squeezed her eyes shut and turned away, not wanting them to see the bitter expression that had hardened her face. She stayed like that for many minutes, caught in a subtle moment of meditation.

She was Looking, seeing into future.

That was when resolve broke.

"Give me the child," Azar said, bolting upright.

Arella did as she said, without question.

Please do not be true, Azar thought to herself in a state of panic.

She held the child up to her face, looking into her eyes before making her face dissolve away. Together, their eyes began to glow a bright white, and throughout their minds, a succession of moons and suns rose and fell, the black sky forever chasing the blue. Years of passage went through their minds, a stream of Raven's future playing out before the eyes of Azar. Her body grew, her purple hair flying out in all directions, and her eyes matured to hide her second pair of them. She sensed the personality of her, the essence of her to do good and to not aid her demonic father.

But still she arrived at the future predicted to her.

What the demon said had been true.

She looked into a future of stone skin and red skies and burning air. Of lava flowing where water should be, and desolation all around, the air filled with birds that desired to feast on carnage. So many people, all innocent, turned to stone and frozen in a state of panic and fear.

And in the middle of this, a small distant sphere of white and blue.

That calmed her enough, and she broke the spell, seeing the baby in her hands for what it was, and not what it would become.

"Here," she said, handing the child back to Arella.

Azar sighed heavily, not wanting to admit to herself what she saw. But she knew she had to; to deny the truth would be futile, and it would not change anything. The unknown could be either a state of fear or a state of blissfulness, depending on the circumstances. Weighing them both within her mind, Azar knew that this unknown must be brought to light.

She had seen Raven's future.

At least those closest to her, and the child herself when the time was right, deserved to know the truth.

Before anyone could force the child away...


	5. Chapter 5

Robin leaned back and groaned, his eyes focusing and unfocusing on the star-shaped patterns flashing before his eyes. They spun and swirled and dimmed out into a hollow blackness before reappearing again in a dizzying array. It was almost calming, if not for a pain in his chest hurting his lungs.

A sharp, burning pain shot through him like a bolt of lightning, starting from between his ribs, and he had to fight the urge to scream. Screaming would only worsen his already abused lungs, and in this realm of hollow stars, he felt that the screams would only die on his lips. Like lightning, and far more painful, another bolt went through him, and he made to clutch at his chest, only to find that he could not move his arms. He groaned, putting up with the pain since it was his only and last option.

"Robin," he heard someone calling him, and he made to open his eyes. It seemed difficult at first, not like his eyes wouldn't work but like he had forgotten how to move them. "Robin," someone called for him again, and still his eyes did not open.

When the shard of glass was pulled from his body, and a great pressure thumped down onto his chest, knocking the wind from him, his eyes opened on instinct.

He was back at Titans Tower, staring up at the ceiling of the infirmary they had. Cyborg and Raven were flanking him; that much he could guess by the colors of violet and brown that were bobbing along around him. They're heads were bent down, and Cyborg was holding pressure to the wound that they had just reopened.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," Raven quietly chanted, her hands spread over his chest and a bluish black liquid-like form seeping from them. Her powers reached down and made to heal his ruptured blood vessels and sew together his severed tissues, all while trying to ease the pain that he was in. Blood had seeped into his lungs as well, and he started coughing. Raven had tried her best to get rid of all the blood, but apparently she had missed some.

"Easy, easy," Cyborg said, pressing a damp cloth to his forehead.

"Thanks," Robin moaned, and trying to clear his throat.

He stopped coughing. From the lack of feeling that was starting to spread through the skin of his face, he assumed that the cloth had been drenched with narcotics. Most likely a numbing agent to take the pain away.

Robin was correct in that assumption: Cyborg had been pouring numbing cloths onto his skin in preparation to remove the blade of glass sticking out of his body. His shirt and cape were pulled off, the depth of the incision had been guessed, and together he and Raven had made plans about the best way to remove it.

They could pull the shard of glass straight out, and that would lead to rapid blood loss. An image of blood spurting out around the room in time with his heartbeat was a gory image none of the Titans wanted to see. Cyborg could pull the shard out a few inches at a time, and leave Raven to heal the body that way, so as not too much damage would be done.

And that had been what they decided on.

Cyborg dropped the bloody shard of glass into a nearby container.

"How are you feeling?" Starfire floated up behind Raven, looking down at Robin with concern etched into her bright green eyes.

The entire time she had been worried sick about him, and it took much from her to remain calm during the entire healing process. Even now, she had to restraint herself from scooping Robin up into a bone-crushing hug and blubbering on about how happy she was that he had not been too badly harmed.

"I'm…feeling…alright," he answered slowly.

"That is so wonderful to hear! Surely you will be up and walking again within a few minutes, yes?" Starfire beamed down at him.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Raven said, answering in place of Robin, who had laid back down against the hospital bed and rested his head on pillow. His arms and legs were still strapped down to the bed, for fear of him moving too much, but now it seemed safe to remove them.

"Why ever not?"

Raven started unbuckling the straps on her side, and Cyborg followed suit.

"It might make things worse. I've healed him a lot, and I still have a ways to go, but even then I don't think he should be putting too much exertion on his body." Raven moved her hands back over his still healing chest, letting her powers seep from her again.

"How—unfortunate." Starfire looked practically deflated.

A long silence followed.

Finally, the silence was broken by Robin's words.

"I take it the HIVE got away?"

Of course that had to be the first thing he would ask.

"Yeah, dude," Beast Boy answered from afar. "They got away, but don't worry! We'll get 'em eventually!" His cheerful exclamations did little to nothing to lighten the mood or reassure them, so he slumped back down and went back to staring out the window.

The outside world was painted with the radiant colors of sunset, and gold, orange, purples, and blues were streaked throughout the sky and mirrored on the ocean. It was truly a beautiful scene, but for them it was only a reminder of how much time had passed.

And of how they had gotten practically nothing done today. Raven nor Starfire had discovered where the mystery caller from the woods were, and they had to give up on their search to help with robberies that they had failed to stop. Robin had gotten stabbed near the heart and it had taken far too long to cure him…by Titan standards. On top of all that, Cyborg still complained about bugs and malfunctions in the system.

Raven felt a pain in her chest at all of these thoughts. She put a hand up to her heart to try to make the pain stop, but it did nothing for it, not even when she began to use her magic on herself. It wasn't physical pain; it was mental pain that was weighing so heavily upon her heart that she could feel the ache just as real as any glass shard.

Your fault, the thoughts in her mind screamed. Your fault, your fault, your fault.

Raven couldn't shake the feeling that this shouldn't be happening. But what difference would that do? She could have screamed all night long that it wasn't fair, that this wasn't supposed to be happening, blah blah blah… But she knew that it would have no effect at all.

Hopes about her next birthdays were growing dimmer. She had truly believed that the prophecy had broken to bits, and that she would live far longer than a short sixteen years, and although that may have been true, she now foresaw a string of bad luck days stretching out into the future. Raven shook her head to clear her thoughts, and clutched at her chest to soothe the burden. Forcing herself back into the present, she saw the room once more for what it really was: a slice of the present where things weren't completely happy but still calm enough. It wasn't the end of the world, just an unfortunate day.

Calming herself with that thought, she went back to tend to Robin.

______________________________________________

The night came far too swiftly, and Robin hadn't been able to go back to his own bed that night. He stayed in the infirmary overnight, with Cyborg's and Raven's insistence, and told the rest of them to go back to their own beds and get some good sleep for the night. They were all reluctant to leave him, but Robin kept insisting to the point where he was nearly shouting orders at them.

"Go. Go. Go to your own beds. Sleep. I'll be fine. Go."

Robin had grabbed his communicator then, waving it in the air at them and telling them all that it would be fine for them to leave because they could reach him so easily. Still waving it in the air at them, one by one they had departed from the room, and stalked their way back to wherever they were going.

Not all of them went to bed.

Cyborg stopped to check the monitoring systems, double and triple checking every single wire in the system. Starfire stood outside the door of the infirmary, listening so closely to Robin's every move, waiting to hear if he was in pain or needed something. Or if he had simply become delirious and started talking to himself.

The only ones who had gone straight to bed were Beast Boy and Raven.

Despite the fact that she was worn out, she knew that she was going to need a potion to sleep.

She dragged her tired body through her mechanical door, not bothering to open it, and went straight to brew it. It was a fairly tasteless drink, and she swallowed it all in under a minute. Sighing, she leaned back on the bed, only able to kick her boots off of her. When the metal of her belt and cuffs and clasp started to hurt her, she groaned and tossed those off of her too, letting them all clank down onto the floor with her boots. She kicked her old blue cloak away from her with her bare foot as she made to take her bra off.

With that done, she collapsed again the bed once more, meaning only to fall asleep right where she fell.

The sheets were warm and welcoming, and she tangled up her body within the comfort of the blankets, her hands reaching out and burying themselves in the softness of the fabrics. Silken-smooth fabric met her hands as she ran them down the bed, and she stopped her hands then to bundle the fabric in to her palms. This wasn't a part of her bedsheets; this was the new black cloak she had received earlier.

She brought it close to her face, examining it.

Even in the dark, she could see exceptionally well. Darkness did hardly anything to hinder her eyesight; even the pitch black darkness of caves couldn't fully blind her. With perfect clarity, the cloak stretched before her, smooth and dark and mysterious. Her eyes travelled over it without goal, not caring where they looked but just looking at the thing. Again, her former thoughts came to her.

What was this cloak?

Where did it come from?

And why did it have such strange powers to it?

Did it come from Azarath?

Raven was almost completely positive that the cloak had come from Azarath. After all, it was the same weaving techniques, the same cut and shape. The color looked right; the black dyes of Azarath had always been a strange type of dark. And the power that laid within the cloak, it was reminiscent of Azarathian power, the same powers that Azar had shown her time and time again.

Yes, the cloak had to be from Azarath.

Sleepily, she let her hands weave through the softness of the cloak, her mind wandering the entire time. She kept drawing connections to Azarath, both real and imaginary, until everything began to swirl within her head and her jumbled thoughts made no more sense.

Dark waves began to pull at her body, sucking her down into their vastness. She floated down onto them, letting the black waves rock her body gently back and forth. She breathed deeply, calmly, sleep finally having taken over her. She floated within an endless black ocean with an endless and starless black sky above her. On and on forever it would stretch, with Raven in the middle of it, floating on the surface and gently rocked by the waves. The water was soothing to her, despite the fact that it wasn't real.

Only in dreams.

Darker and darker the waves grew, the black becoming so thick that not even Raven could have pierced through the dark with her eyes. Everything faded out of her mind, and that was when her dreams began. Oddly enough, she began a dream about looms. Only about looms; there was nothing else present in the visions passing before her closed eyes. Just a loom, appearing out of nothing and fading into nothing and consuming the entirety of her un-concentrated attention. As she dreamed, the loom became stranger and stranger, making even less sense. Even by dream standards, the loom had become too bizarre.

As she slept, Raven's hands clutched around the black fabric of the cloak.

Threads were flying through the air, appearing out of nowhere before threading into the loom and knitting together on their own account. The thread seemed to swim within the vacant space of the loom that still was clacking away, before the swimming threads finally stilled. The emotion of her dream was one of nostalgia…

…and of repulsion.

Raven woke up with a headache, thanks to the very loud and very sharp alarm piercing through the peace and quiet. With a groan, Raven rolled over to the edge of the bed, forcing her eyes open to look at the flashing red communicator on the floor.

She hesitated for a second, rubbing her eyes and debating whether or not to just ignore it and go back to sleep. But she knew she couldn't do that, even in her overly-tired state.

She picked up the communicator and switched the screen on. The bright light burned her eyes, and she scrunched her face up as the coordinate map showed up on the screen, a bright red dot blinking in the middle of the forest.

"Again?" she groaned to herself.

Raven laid her head back on the pillow, still clutching the communicator and pointing the light away from her.

Probably just another false call, Raven reasoned. But even so, I should take it anyway…are my teammates gonna?

Prying her eyes open, she turned the screen of the communicator back to her, pressing the buttons to locate her teammates. Robin was still in the infirmary, Starfire and Beast Boy still in their bedrooms, and Cyborg was still in the living room, having fallen asleep on the couch. None of them seemed to be in a big hurry to answer the alarm, so Raven shrugged it off, dismissed the red beeping signal, and tossed it back down onto the floor with everything else. Sighing, she rolled back over onto her bed, pulling the sheets up over her and sinking into the cushions.

Only now she couldn't sleep, despite how tired she was.

"Damn it," she mumbled, sitting up in bed.

Aimed at the communicator: "Thanks a lot."

It was still blinking. She arched her eyebrow, thinking that she might actually go investigate again. The thought spun around in her mind, playing tricks on her to make it seem like a better idea than it actually was. Raven couldn't sleep as it was, and she had nothing else to do.

Go, check it out, and then be back before sunrise.

It was a bad idea, a terrible idea, but Raven wanted to do it the more she thought about it. She didn't fear the woods at night, for there was no reason to. She didn't fear anything. not anything. She wanted to go and see this infernal beeping signal, and maybe put it out for good.

So, she let the dark magic swirl around her, collecting her and her cloak and communicator within its being, consuming and drawing them together into the dark winged raven. Silently, with wings beating, she let the energy carry her out of her room, through the windows and out across the dark ocean to the still dimly lit city skylines. The lights passed before her vision in a blurred, orange-y glow, illuminated right up to the border of the rural wooded area.

There, everything went dark.

Raven landed and looked around the dark woods, her eyes scanning the darkness with ease. She knew this place, but from where she did not know; it was in the back of her mind, just begging to be brought forth into the light where it would hit the front part of her brain and make her remember. But she just couldn't place it. But she knew this place. These dark woods, this specific location. But from where?

She shook her head and sighed, trying to clear her mind. Clear, open, free. Thinking as clearly as she could.

Checking on the Titans communicator one last time, she saw the red blinking button still in motion. Someone was still calling for help. Raven closed it down and then tucked it away, and began walking. Slowly, she turned her head either which way, taking in the full scene around her. Her eyes picked up even the slightest sound; the chirp of a cicada, the wind rustling the leaves, the snap of a twig far off. Night owls and nocturnal insects were alive with the night, all of them seeming to have a song or a scream that they wanted heard.

And beneath all this natural sound, Raven could hear nothing. There was no sound to indicate someone in need, so what was she doing here?

Truthfully, it was the nostalgia that brought her here, along with her curiosity.

She could only hope it wouldn't be deadly.

Robin had already been stabbed, and now they had him hooked up to morphine drips and half of his body was wrapped in gauze as the blood in him sought the correct path once more. He had been injured to the point where it was nearly fatal. Another delightful perk of her birthday.

Raven hung her head.

What more would this cursed day have in store for her?

She scanned the woods again before continuing her pace. She circled around the area, taking in all she could, even bothering to examine some of the trees and sweep the ground for hidden trap doors or secret hideaways or animal nets. Nothing.

Her headache was creeping back into her head. Her fingers flew up to her temples and pressed into the skin, rubbing small circles around them to get the blood flowing. It helped only so much to alleviate the pain. She winced as the time ticked by and it still hadn't gone away.

"There's something about this place," she whispered to herself. As if saying it aloud would help her remember. "Damn it, what is it?" she hissed out between clenched teeth.

It was driving her mad, slowly but surely. The answer seemed to be staring her in the eyes, just waiting for her to look back. She retreated back into the corners of her dark mind, searching patiently through all the memories that she had collected, and waited. Waited for the realization to hit her. She let her mind float freely, letting the memories shift like sands in the wind. Layers began to get peeled back, and she saw things in her memories that she didn't want to see. As with anyone, the mind was a tiresome place, full of things that could make your emotions change so suddenly.

The thoughts, dancing behind her eyes, one after another, revealed themselves until she found the memory she wanted to. This place, this specific part of the forest; it was her first introduction to Earth.

Raven opened her eyes again.

It didn't seem like much. The memory should have hit her hard, not pass over her gently. She remembered now; this was where she had first come to Earth after fleeing Azarath and Limbo. But it still didn't explain anything.

The beeping? The strange, eerie feeling she got from this place? The beeping?

The beeping that had suddenly stopped…


	6. Chapter 6

Memories.

Tonight, it was about memories.

Even the fires that broke out within the city could not stop that. Raging fires that were consuming buildings faster than people could leave them. Raven sprung into action, killing the fire where she could and flying everyone down to safety. She waited for the rest of her team—minus Robin—to arrive and help her with the newest disaster that was taking the city by storm.

But she found later that she would have to wait a long time.

The firefights showed up before they did, and that was rare. Rare to the point of never. But now their perfect record had been shattered, and Raven was left covered in soot and black magic crackling in her hair, being hugged fiercely by a little boy who was crying because she saved his cat.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," he sobbed, clutching Raven's body with one hand while he held his frightened but unharmed cat in the other hand. Raven pet his head, not knowing what else to do. "You're welcome," she said awkwardly.

But the fire still raged on behind her, roaring as strongly as ever, the hot flames nearly licking at her back. Sweat was beading on her skin, and she still needed to help. Even with the firefighters pouring their gallons of water onto the billowing flames, they could only do so much.

"You're welcome, you're welcome, but I need to still help…"

She flew off back into the building, breaking a window with her powers and flying through the raining shards of glass that scratched at her skin. Back into the inferno she went, not bothered by the intense heat thanks to her demonic heritage. The flames surged around her, having discovered a new prey within their territory. Their fiery tongues flicked out to lick her skin, testing to see if she was worth devouring. Raven pushed through them.

Two more cats were in the building, frightened and crying, some of their hair singed. Tears came into Raven's eyes; she had always had a soft spot for cats. She tried to console them and calm them down, preparing them before she let her dark magic envelope them, sparing them from the fire but still frightening them. Breaking another window, she hovered the cats out and lowered them down carefully, placing them softly and securely on the ground before freeing them. Immediately, someone ran up to them and began embracing them.

Her cloak was burning, catching fire so easily that the blue was quickly turning to flames and ashes. Raven pulled the cloak from her neck, tossing it carelessly into the rest of the fire and letting it burn. Yellow flames erupted around it, feeding off of the new food. Before she had, Raven collected everything she needed: her communicator that doubled as her cloak clasp. Then the cloak turned from smoldering oranges to black soot and started crumbling into ash.

Raven didn't stay to watch.

"Anyone here?" she yelled throughout the burning hallways.

"Yeshelp!" came the screeched response.

Raven's head snapped around, her powers carrying her towards them. Children. Two young children, both clinging to each other for dear life. Tears were streaking down their faces, and their bodies bunched up and huddled into a corner. Raven tried parting the fire with her dark powers, letting them lash out at the flames and kill them on contact, the oxygen being sucked from them as she beat them to the ground. Using the rest of her powers as a bridge to pass unharmed, she collected the two kids and gave them their escape.

Just as Raven flew out the window, making fast towards the ground—and hopefully their parents—she heard the girl child whisper, "Demon," and then began to sob in her ear. Raven swallowed hard, trying not to let the word bother her. But it did, cutting straight to her heart like a shard of glass.

"Here," she said curtly, setting them both down on the grass, less than gentle.

For perhaps the hundredth time so far, she flew back into the burning building. It was her duty to help until she was sure there was no one left. Once everyone was safe, then she could stop rushing into the hellish apartments with their flames raging high. Pushing inward was a bad idea, Raven would come to realize.

"Is anyone here?" she screamed out, then started coughing hard. The smoke was thicker near the center, with no proper ventilation to keep her breathing right. The smoke was heavy and clogging the air, pushing at Raven's body, making her eyes water and her lungs scream and her very skin feel tainted. "Is anyone here?" she yelled out again, once her coughing fit had ceased. She pricked her ears, listening for the answer.

An enormous creaking sound came from above her, changing into a groan and then a crashing as wood and cement came crashing down on top of her. She shielded herself in an orb of black energy, letting the debris land upon the shield and then crumble at the edges. Raven was left unharmed.

For the moment.

Nearing the stairs only made the strain harder. Smoke was rushing up along the open staircases like it would a chimney, pushing it straight into her face. She blocked her face with her hands as she looked down into what looked like a scene from Limbo. While the heat and fire couldn't hurt her, the smoke could, and the smoke was only making it worse to breathe.

"Is anyone down there?" she screamed.

When she heard no response, she turned away from the staircase. She didn't know her next move, and she couldn't think about it for the moment, for she was wheezing, trying to get enough oxygen into her pained lungs. With her magic, she let a sphere emit from her being and push out from her, scattering the fire and the smoke away from her. She breathed in the clean air, gasping it in before the smoke could return to choke her.

"Is someone up there?" came a hoarse voice from below.

Raven's body immediately responded, turning and jumping from the top floor and flying down to the voice. "I'm here! Where are you?"

Fire was licking at her shoes, brushing up across her ankles and calves like long blades of grass. Raven ignored it, letting it singe her as she walked. It didn't matter; she could take it. Whatever damage it did she could heal easily enough.

"Where are you?" the voice screamed in return.

Raven's vision had grown far too hazy, so she was relying more on her hearing. The crackling and popping of the fire drowned almost everything out, leaving nothing more than a deafening roar in her ears. She could hear the person, but not place their voice. She didn't recognize it. It was a mistake she would come to regret.

The fire exploded around her, and Raven screamed in shock and pain. The flames bit at her skin, searing parts of her uniform off her, leaving smoldering patches amongst the black. The tips of her hair singed, and the brightness drilled straight past her eyes and into the meat of her brain, making her see white even after she sealed her eyes shut. Organic blobs of dancing color exploded within her sight.

Her black powers had reacted immediately out of pure instinct, protecting her from the explosion which would have left her burned beyond belief. It covered her body like a rigid cloak, vanishing into the foul air as the flames spun around dying, having been torn from their source.

The rest of the building was giving out, coming down around her and crashing so near her body. She jumped out of the way, only to be caged in by steel bars and concrete clusters that wouldn't stop falling. With that, Raven knew there was nothing more that she could do here. She sought for her exit.

The fire was surging around her as she ran, burning her even more. Her skin felt crisp, and her sleeves were smoldering even worse, clumps of black fabric falling free from her reddened skin. As though the fire were alive, it moved through the rest of the hallways like blood in a vein. Raven closed her eyes, pressing her fingers to her temples. The fire had trapped her completely, caging her in its destruction. She'd had enough.

Snapping her eyes open, they began glowing bright red. 

With a roar, Raven lashed out, a different type of power entirely seeping from her veins and reaching towards the fire. The fire responded to her control. She gripped it all within her fists, pulling it away from the walls and ceilings, spinning it around in the air while it licked at the charred and blackened surfaces. With another yell tearing from her throat, she pushed all the fire out of the windows.

The fire poured out of the building and into the black night, startling everyone and making them scream as the orange flames shot from the windows, ceaselessly pouring forth. The scene was hellish, and people started to run, backing away from it. Even the firefighters were unsure what to do, could only look with widened, horrorstruck eyes as fire roared out at them.

Raven stopped, her red glowing eyes returning to normal. She was breathing hard, and her body stung with pain. Opening her eyes again, she looked around at the blackened ashes of the once pristine hallways.

"…Raven…?" said a small voice beside her.

Starfire stood, her green eyes dull with shock. A look of terror passed over her face, and a look of worry. Raven felt immediate fear and shame; her breath caught in her throat, and she felt herself backing away from her, wanting to leave this scene.

Behind her, the equally frightened forms of Cyborg and Beast Boy appeared.

"No, Raven!" Starfire called out as Raven's black magic enveloped her.

Raven didn't stay to listen. She was gone, far gone, flying as fast as her power could carry her. The maze of the city didn't mean anything, so she flew long and hard with no sight as to where she was going. When she was far enough away, she let herself return to normal and stumbled onto the ground.

Bracing herself up against a cold brick wall, she walked herself into darker parts of the shadows, letting them cloak her from any prying eyes. Once in the comfort of the shadows, she examined herself, taking in her singed flesh, cloak-less uniform, and burned bodysuit. She sighed, leaning her back up against the wall and letting her body slump. Exhaustion was clouding in on her mind, but she didn't notice it. All she could feel was the texture of her emotions, crawling around in her chest and sliding down from her brain, sizzling along her spinal cord. Their fingers encaged her heart.

______________________________________________

Memories.

Tonight was about the memories.

And now there were far too many of them. When Raven had first arrived on Earth, dodging around the streets was how she lived. Dark shadows from buildings and alleyways, sneaking through walls to get what she needed, hiding herself from anyone and everyone who got near her, avoiding the public eye. Except then she had been fully dressed, without burns on her body, and had a cloak from Azarath to protect her.

Raven waited a long time, waited to see whether anybody was coming after her. Minutes passed, each one rolling into the other until the time had become nothing but a blur within space. Finally deciding she was safe, she walked from the alleyway in which she hid, peeking her head out.

Cop sirens were wailing eerily, echoing through the streets. Raven ducked her head back into. She followed the flashing lights with her eyes, then cast herself near them, wandering to see where they were heading. A car crash on Main 5th. Nothing she would do about that.

It left a bitter taste in her mouth, for her life to be playing out like this all over again. The symmetry could have been poetic if it wasn't for the crippling effect it had on her mind and body. Having flown to Earth to escape Trigon, hiding on Earth like a wanted criminal. Becoming a hero, defeating Trigon and imprisoning him, only for the effect to be the same. She still hid on Earth, fearing his power.

Maybe it was time for her to go back to Azarath.

She shook her head. Her friends were here on Earth, she lived with them, she loved them. But the image of Starfire's frightened face passed through her mind, along with the taste of regret. Sighing was all she could do. That, and walking. Darting her head out, she decided she was fine, and left the alleyway. Keeping her head down, she focused on the patting of her feet against the concrete. The even pacing created a monotone in her head, till she was so used to the pattern that the air felt empty without it.

Few people darted away from her, when they saw her. Changing what side of the street they walked on, or rounding a corner and keeping her out of sight completely.

How fast can rumors travel? she wondered.

When someone screamed, pointing at her, Raven had her answer.

Biting back the sting of tears, she flew up into the air, landing on the dark rooftops. People seldom looked up, so that had been her safe haven for so long. The expanse of the city met her eyes. And there she was left alone. The stars overhead were dim, blocked out by the harsh city lights, but Raven could still track their movement. A single star, brightest to her eyes, she watched as it moved higher until it peaked, then started coming back down again. Dawn was nearing, and Raven assumed it had to have been past two in the morning. She was tired, her muscles ached, her eyes bloodshot, her skin bruised and scraped.

I should go back to the tower, she thought. My friends are probably worried…if they still are my friends.

"…Raven?"

The same small voice from before. Starfire.

Not bothering to turn around, Raven asked, "What do want, Starfire?"

Her footsteps moved closer. "I came to see if you were all right?" Starfire said. There wasn't any hesitation in her voice; no fear. When Raven said nothing, Starfire held out the object in her hand. "I thought you might like this."

Raven finally spun around. A new cloak was in her hand. Starfire smiled weakly, offering it to her, pushing the cloak closer to Raven. Raven looked at it warily before finally taking it, clasping it around herself. Comfort washed through her, and she gathered the fabric around her.

"Thanks," she said dully, before turning her eyes back to the city.

Starfire stood awkwardly behind her, shifting her weight and biting her lip, unsure what to say next. Raven had always been complicated, she knew, and trying to figure her out had always been a challenge to her. Starfire took a deep breath before trying her luck with words. "I hope that cloak is okay. I found it in your room. It was lying on the bed." Starfire came to her side, lifting her hand to sit it on Raven's shoulder, but letting it fall back down. "Is it nice?"

"Yes."

More silence.

"I am not scared of you," Starfire proclaimed.

Raven shifted her eyes up to meet her gaze. In Raven's eyes were fear and guilt, but confusion as well. How could she not be scared after what Raven had just done? She had seen fear upon her face. Raven stood then, able to meet Starfire's gaze equally. The texture of her emotions was true, and Raven could see it plainly on her face that Starfire was being honest.

"I am not scared of you," Starfire said again, more cheerfully this time.

"Then why did you look scared?"

"Well, er…" Starfire trailed off, "I was simply in shock. I did not know you could do such things with fire, nor did I expect your eyes to be glowing red during the midst of all that was happening…" Her eyes flickered down. "I know that these days are stressful on you," said Starfire quietly, "but time will relieve. You must trust us."

Raven said nothing.

"Please come back to the Tower with me. Robin and the others are waiting. They are most worried. Please, Raven." Starfire clasped her friend's hands in hers, giving them a slight squeeze.

Raven looked up earnestly at her friend, giving her a small smile. It was all she could manage.

"Starfire…I am going back to Azarath," she lied.


	7. Chapter 7

Arella knew that a half-demon child would be strange, but nothing prepared her for the child's baby fangs, that poked through her tiny gums and then bit into Arella's skin. Only when breastfeeding did Raven bite her, and she drank her mother's blood just as she drank her milk. Arella was scared beyond belief at that point, and in pain, and despite all this she did not confide in anyone. She fed the child in secret, where no one watched, and cried when she felt her blood being sucked from her.

Arella knew that her baby Raven was a half-demon, but she wished deep down that the child wasn't so demonic. She took too much after her father; a hunger for blood, four eyes (that she had later discovered could glow red), and already protruding teeth and nails.

It was too much for her, so she cried.

In the privacy of her room, quietly so no one could hear her, and only when the pain became too much to handle.

She looked down at Raven, who currently slept soundly in her arms. Arella did not cry, but looked at her baby fondly. She loved her. Despite what she was, and who she was, and how she had come to have her, she loved her with her whole heart. Arella clutched the baby close to her chest, protectively, when she heard shouting and stomping from outside within the temple hallways. There was nothing to guess, she knew what was going on.

Azar and Juris were arguing again.

Arguments that filled Arella with fear, for she knew what they discussed. Juris wanted Raven dead, disposed of, and every day he was coming up with new ways to do it. Azar stood in his way, telling him that he shan't harm a single hair on her head. To which he always screamed back, "She is the daughter of Trigon! She will bring about the destruction of everything! Her only purpose is to die and aid Trigon's ascension! No good can come of letting her live!"

Arella held Raven close and pulled the blanket of her bedding up near her, partially shielding Raven from what was happening so close to them both.

If Juris did anything, right here and now, with the fear pulsing through Arella's body, she would have broke Azarath's code of pacifism. Should Juris harm even a hair on her daughter's head, she would have beaten him to the ground, and not stopped until he was begging for her mercy. Suddenly ashamed, she pushed these thoughts from her mind. She replaced them with more peaceful images, and counted to the tenth number, just as Azar had taught her to do upon entering Azarath.

"Anger is a poison. Learn to rid yourself of it," she had told Arella, and Arella listened as best she could.

But Juris' screams and shouts brought up that surge of rage, and bile filled in the back of her throat. Baby Raven made a strange gurgling sound, and pushed her body closer to her mother, seeking her warmth and the comfort of her embrace. Partially, she too was disturbed by the shouting.

"Shh, shh, shh," Arella said, hoping her daughter not to be in distress.

"Yes, Azar, I've heard that same speech a thousand times before! 'All life is sacred!' Well, all life IS sacred, and that's why we have to get rid of that thing! She'll destroy all life, you said so yourself! You saw it in that vision when you looked into that child's—" he spat the word, "future. One life for millions of lives! Billions, even! Seems like a fair trade."

"ENOUGH!" came Azar's response.

So loud and powerful it seemed to fill the entire realm with her voice. Everyone, everything, bowed down in reverence. Even Juris had shut his mouth, bowing low to her, not wishing to hear her voice so tremendous again.

"I will hear no more of this. You go, leave this temple and sleep within the towers of the outer celestial grounds."

"But—"

Azar cut him off. "Do as I say, or you will be forfeit to Azarath entirely."

No more words were heard, and Arella breathed a sigh of relief, one that she had not realized she had been holding. Raven was safe for another night, and she could've cried in happiness. Except she didn't cry when she was happy, or relieved, or anything. Only when she was sad or in pain...or had just given birth. Right now she was in neither. Closing her eyes, she leaned back against her pillows just as there was a knock upon the thick door of her room. Arella leaned her head up, telling the visitor to come in, and leaned back down.

Azar entered her room, and Arella had mixed feelings of relief and nervousness. Raven didn't even stir.

"Hello, Azar," Arella said, stooping her head as much she could.

Azar held up a hand. "Do not bow. It forms a hierarchy, and such rules of social governing have been cast aside within this realm." Arella nodded her understanding, and Azar came up next to her. She only stood there for some time, before she lowered herself to sit on the edge. Her eyes were upon Raven.

"She is a very beautiful child," Azar told Arella.

"She is," Arella agreed.

There was another pause between the words, neither woman really knowing what to say. A long silence pressed in on the air, and it would have been comfortable had not the former words of Juris still linger within the temple. Azar knew that Arella knew, and Arella knew she knew. And really, what was there to say to someone who had heard of her daughter's predicted death again and again and again? The pain she must be feeling, Azar could not imagine it. She felt for the child.

A tender ache had formed in her heart, every time she looked at her or heard her name. It felt like something stabbing her, a great pressure that squeezed the air out of her and make her choke on her breath. Raven would not die anytime soon, that she promised herself, for her life was as sacred as everyone else's. Something far worse was to come to her, though. Azar had felt the pain in her future just as well as saw it, and another blow struck upon her heart.

"She is very quiet," Azar tried, looking down at the infant once more.

"She is tired," Arella responded. "She had a busy day."

Azar's eyes narrowed, and Arella's heart sped up, beating rapidly, fear coursing through her veins as Azar leaned down towards the baby, inspecting her closer. "Is that blood upon her lips?" she asked quietly. Arella said nothing, for she did not know what to say. Yes, it is? She drinks my blood and mixes it with her milk? She has special baby fangs just for it? Arella would rather jump into the flames of Limbo herself.

A slender, brown finger reached out, and touched the delicate lips of Raven. She pressed down so lightly, and Raven nearly kissed her in return. Pulling her finger away, she held it up to the light, observing the material closely.

Arella's heart felt like it was about to explode.

"It is blood."

Now Arella was crying. Fear, pain, sadness. It was all there.

Azar looked back at her, then wiped her tears away with her thumbs. "Do not cry," she said softly. "It is natural, for her. There is nothing to be afraid of." Azar's head bent down, her eyes upon Raven. Leaning down, she gave the baby a soft kiss upon her forehead, letting them both know she had no ill will towards them.

Worry still coated Arella's heart.

All through the night, Arella slept in spurts. Horrible dreams filled her sleeping head, and horrible pains filled her awakened head. Raven was held tightly in her arms all night. She wouldn't let her go, not even for a moment. She slept and woke and slept again with Raven swaddled tightly to her body. It was far too risky to have her sleep without her arms around her; lest someone grab her and steal her away.

Raven started crying sometime around midnight, and Arella gave her her breast once more.

After that, she slept again. Deeply, and even her nightmares couldn't seem to wake her fast enough. The bed was so warm and soft and inviting, and she was so stressed, as well as sleep-deprived, that her body had simply had enough. It couldn't go on in a state of fear forever. So it shut off. In the form of sleep, Arella left the inter-dimension of Azarath and entered her world of blackened dreams yet again.

When she awoke sometime near dawn, Raven was gone from her arms.

"No!" Arella screeched, her heart already pounding. She leapt from the bed and nearly flew down the hallways, tearing across the temple, screaming her daughter's name over and over again with tears in her eyes.

No one dared to stop her, for they could see her fear and desperation. Try to be as intellectual as they might, they still knew better than to stop a mother from protecting her child. In Arella's case, they knew what was happening. No one had the heart to tell her.

"Raven!" Arella screeched again.

She didn't know why she called her name, for Raven couldn't respond anyway. Did she even know her name, yet? Arella didn't care, she still called for her, her feet carrying her far and fast. When she reached the dais of the main temple, she stopped dead, unable to believe her eyes. Then, with a roar, she pushed forward, making a clear pathway to Raven and Juris.

"No! Do not!" many of them said to her.

Hands were grabbing her from every angle, pulling at her clothes and gripping tightly on her arms, holding her back. She tried fighting them off, kicking and biting and hitting them, but to no avail.

"Raven!" Arella's voice broke with tears. She was so close to saving her.

Juris held the child above him, weighing her in his hands as he chanted. His voice was supernatural sounding, echoing through the air like no voice ever should. Through the blur of her tears, mysticism and sorcery was being carried out. The air was burning, sizzling with an exotic, unknown power that drilled into her very nerves. The portal was opening, and Limbo appeared just beyond the inter dimensions of the realm. Arella screamed more, fought more. Six people now restrained her.

Fire and smoke opening from the portal, flowing into the room along with a devilish red glow. The cool whites and grays of the temple were alight with the color of hellfire, and Raven hovered just above the pit that would cast her down into the fire.

One hundred bodies could have stood in her way, it did not matter. She broke free from them all, but it was too late.

With his unnatural voice, Juris proclaimed, "Let us be free!"

His hands fell, and Raven entered Limbo.

Raven didn't scream, didn't cry, didn't even make a sound. But Arella was a mess; screaming and wailing, sunk down to her hands and knees on the floor. She clutched herself, trying to calm herself. Her breath came out quicker and quicker until she was hyperventilating, and she knew that she was going to make herself ill the way she screamed. But the pain in her heart, that was never going to ebb.

Slowly, Arella turned her eyes upwards to Juris, who stood tall and mighty, far too proud of himself, far too full of himself, far too happy. Arella snarled, lips pulled back to reveal her teeth. Her eyes blazed with rage and pain and hatred. This man, this evil man who had taken away and killed her daughter. Arella lashed out, nails as her claws and teeth biting, her palm smashing against the side of his face and splitting open his lip, and her knee coming up in between his legs, making him double over clutching at himself.

"You witch!" he screamed at Arella, grabbing her wrist with a single free hand and pushing her towards the edge of the portal. "You deserve to go with her!" he spat, pushing her farther back. Arella's back arched as Juris struggled to push her into Limbo. 

Arella held her own, snarling and cussing, her nails biting into his skin until she drew blood. She didn't care. She hated him. Tears streaked down her face as she stared at him, into his wide purple eyes filled with fear and righteousness. She wouldn't be cast down into Limbo. She knew that if she were thrown into the fires, she would never come out. Raven might have been cast into Limbo, but Arella knew she couldn't go chasing after her. She just couldn't. But she could get justice, right here and now. For her and for her daughter.

She leaned forward and bit him.

Juris howled, and threw Arella away from him and the portal. Arella collapsed on the floor, his blood on her fingers, tears streaking down her face as she cried and wept and sobbed. She stayed on her knees, curling up around herself protectively. The portal to Limbo was closing. The red glow and evil aura was starting to fade from the room, returning it to its normal illusion of peace and serenity. 

"We are free," Juris proclaimed.

Everything and everyone was quiet.

Juris looked back down onto the dais where the portal had closed, speaking only to himself, "It was cruel, but it had to be done."

"JURIS!"

Azar's voice.

Far more powerful, far more deadly. Her anger was boiling, filling the entire room until the crowds were brought to their knees, unable to stand such force. Juris turned his eyes up to her, standing above him upon the landing. A flame of defiance burned strong, and he glared back.

As if to add to Azar's terrifying display of rage, the fires glowed around the temples once more, searing and scorching. But it was not Azar's doing. Juris backed away, the portal ever expanding at his feet, and the inferno seeming to beckon to him. The fires had a taste of him, licking at his bare feet, and they sprang forth like living beings.

Another crackling scream filled the room, not of fury but of pain. A pain so great that you couldn't help but cry at the anguish of the poor soul. Juris was burning, his body aflame from the inside out, and the embers coating on his skin. He coughed soot, and his skin was reddening as fire burned within his heart and veins. Bloody tears started streaking down his face. He was being dragged forth, stumbling on bleeding and burned feet, struggling all the while.

With another surge of mystical power, Juris was destroyed, the last of him nothing more than a scream and blackened bones. The wrath of Trigon.

Trigon, who was never supposed to enter Azarath, who never could.

Arella felt the flames cool around her, licking seductively at her skin. No fire should have been so cool, to stroke at her like a lover. Opening her eyes, Raven came back to her, a mirage within blue flames, wavering. But she was there, really her; her true self, her real body. Arella reached into the cold blue fire and her hands closed around Raven, her skin placid and unbroken. Pulling her forward, she hugged the child fiercely, sobbing tears of relief.

"Oh, Raven," she kept whispering, again and again.

Everything had gone quiet. A feeling of desertion was coming to her; a vague, thin feeling through the veil of her personal moment with Raven. Azarath had a habit of instilling these senses into people. They were all finding their way away from here, leaving the mother and daughter alone. It didn't feel right to invade upon such a private moment.

Just as she felt the crowds dissipate in waves, so to could she sense Azar coming towards her ever closer. She didn't care, didn't open her eyes or look up or acknowledge her in any way. To hell with Azar, Arella thought. Raven nearly died. She needed me and I wasn't there.

More tears stung at her eyes.

Raven's tiny hands were clutching onto the white fabric of her mother's clothes, holding onto her the only way she knew how. Her eyes were open again, all four of them, and Arella swore that she never saw anything as beautiful. Slowly, she brought her tiny fist forward, opening and closing slowly, a clump of the robe still in her hand.

"I'm so sorry," Azar said.

Arella nodded, but she didn't accept the apology. Azar knew that, could read that as plainly as she could read anyone else.

"I should have prevented it."

"You should have," Arella agreed. Nuzzling her nose against Raven's, Arella found her way to her feet. Her legs shook and her body ached and she felt drained all around. Swaying, she tried her best to steady herself, but it was Azar who kept her from falling.

For a fleeting moment, Arella made eye contact with the woman. Deep purple eyes filled with regret and sorrow, as deep as the ocean. No, Azar's regret ran deeper. Arella flicked her eyes away, and slowly made her way back to her room, pain in every step. She supposed that not even she had escaped unburned. Azar walked with her.

"Arella, I truly do regret what has happened. I promise you, never will I let something like this happen again."

Arella walked on, not caring how fast or slow she went. With every word of Azar's, she felt herself slowly returning to normal. Well, her own state of normal. The new normal she had been forced to accept.

"Arella," Azar said, stepping in front of her. Arella looked up at her. Putting a hand onto each of her shoulders, she said, "Arella. To make up for this, I will personally take you both under my wing."

No one said anything for the longest time.

"You will both be safer there. Raven and you. You will both be protected far more than you have been now. I will personally see to you both, I will watch over you, and I will teach you. I promise you this. Raven will grow up like that."

Azar's proposal was sounding sweeter by the moment.

"Only one other person has ever been so intimate with me to share a life with me, and she helped to deliver Raven. I offer this to you and Raven."

With a sigh, Arella accepted the offer, mumbling her thanks. Azar smiled, and pulled them both into a gentle hug. "I know I have failed this time, but I shall never do so again." With a tender rub upon her back, Azar began to lead Arella away.

"Arella?" Azar asked, hours later after the stress had finally passed, "you were going to kill Juris, were you not?"

"Yes," Arella said. Not a bit of hesitation to her. Arella's feral side was coming out again, despite her newfound motherhood and vows for peacefulness, and it was easy to see how she had become so strong. To bear so much.

Azar, pacifist and peaceful Azar, said to her, "I don't blame you."


	8. Chapter 8

"And you just let her leave?!"

Cyborg and Beast Boy were trying to hold him back down against the bed. Robin struggled against them both, not caring if he tore his skin open again or injured himself by breaking open his blood vessels. "Let me move!" he cried, throwing them both off of him. He jumped from the bed, sagging with the pain that went through his chest, and then straightened again. Starfire looked at him with remorse, but it was clear that she only felt remorse for how Robin felt.

"I did. I do not see a problem with her having left," Starfire said calmly.

Glancing up, she saw a small vein appear in his forehead, and the strain on his muscles was telling. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to hold back a headache…or control his rage. One of the two; which one, Starfire found herself not caring too much.

"Robin," she said again, as calmly as ever. She placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look back up at her. "Raven will be fine. What harm can come of her leaving for Azarath?"

"Yeah, man," Cyborg chimed in behind them. He crossed his arms, looking at them both with a stern expression. Robin glanced down, away from his stare; he hated when Cyborg played big brother to them all. And Robin just knew that that was what he was about to do right now. "Raven's perfectly capable of making her own decisions," he said.

"I know that," Robin responded, his anger subsiding. Only to be replaced with the worry he felt, pulsing through his veins, and the magical stitching she had given him. He placed his hand over the bandages, feeling a terrible ache within the muscles.

"Then what gives?" Beast Boy asked.

Drawing a long sigh, he looked back at Starfire, her being the only one he could face right now. "I'm well aware that Raven can do as she likes…within reason…but I—have this feeling—that she didn't go back to Azarath like she said."

Bright green eyes widening, Starfire whispered, "Then…what do you think she has done?"

"I don't know," Robin said, shaking his head, "and that's what worries me." Spinning, he looked back at his other two teammates. Cyborg and Beast Boy had both seemed sobered at what he had said. Even looked down at their feet, taking in just what he had said. They knew Robin and Raven had some sort of bond between them, so deep down, they feared he was right.

"You don't think she'd—" Beast Boy started to ask.

"She would what?" Starfire didn't like the silence at the end of his question, and she walked closer to him, prodding him to continue his sentence, which he didn't.

"Look," Robin said, his voice strong. He gasped and put a hand back to his chest, clutching at his ribs as pain shot through his body and cascaded out around him. Even his fingers throbbed. Despite all Raven had done for him, he couldn't heal within a single day. "Look," he said again, "I'm not Raven. I don't think like her, and I don't know exactly what or where she went. But there is one thing I know: we shouldn't leave her alone at a time like this. Yes, we can give her space, all the space she wants. But I have a feeling—a fairly strong one—that we should be with her right now."

Cyborg sighed, shaking his head. Pressing his mechanical fingers against the skin of his head, he spoke, "Robin, you can't go chasing after her just because you have 'a feeling.'"

Robin said nothing, only pressed his lips together. He knew that they wouldn't understand. Even his best friends, his closest teammates, couldn't see things the way he was seeing them now. He could just picture something grim hiding behind Raven's calm exterior, and he had wanted her close during this birthday. In his room, books about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder littered his desk, and research articles abound upon his personal laptop. The first birthday without The Prophecy was one that should have been watched carefully, or so he felt.

Either way, Raven was gone now. Gone to wherever she had gone, Azarath or some other place on Earth or some hidden dimension. If she had fled the Earth, like she had tried to do so many times before, there was no hope of finding her. Robin could only hope that she would come back to them.

No! Robin thought. He couldn't let her leave that easily. With a newfound determination, Robin bolted from the infirmary, striding along the halls and back to his room to gather his things. The echoing sound of footsteps followed him the entire time.

"And just what are you doing?" Cyborg asked.

Clasping his cape around his shoulders, and packing the last of his materials into his bag, he spun around to face the three of them.

"I'm gonna go find her."

___________________________________________________

Raven had brought the clouds with her, and with them the storms and the darkness. And the bad luck that seemed to follow her everywhere right now. She breathed deep, meditating discreetly as she flew. Clasped in her hand was the black cloak that Starfire had given to her; she had not known she had been wearing it for some time, and when she realized she unclasped it from her shoulders, not wanting to wear it. Something about it put her on edge, and she didn't want to fuel her unease. The mysterious cloak from Azarath had been draped over her shoulders for hours and within that time, all her wounds had healed, her mind had been soothed, and even her torn and burned clothes had been repaired.

What is this thing? she had wondered.

Protectively she clasped the cloak in her fist as she flew far away from Jump City. Honestly, Raven had no idea where she was going, or what she was doing. She had only one plan within her mind, and that was to get out of Jump City and put as much distance between her and her friends that she could. The farther away she was from them, the weaker the curse.

Her communicator she had left behind as well, having buried it deep within the soil of the forest, where the damned beeping had irritated her day and night. She knew they'd find it, eventually.

She could picture Robin's panic in her mind now, the way he would clench his jaw and widen his eyes and start demanding everything from everyone, angry shouts and tense movements. The stress would boil over, as it always did for him. Raven didn't like to picture it; Robin angry, that is. She didn't want her friends to worry, but she felt that this was the best thing for them. If she had stayed, the curse would affect them, too. If she had told them where she was going, or what she was planning, they would have stopped her. Or would have tried to stop her, but Raven didn't want to gamble on it.

She flew down, closer to the ground, then landed upon the thin soil. She walked quietly, knowing that there was a small little town little ways away. It had a large library, Raven knew that much, since her team had gone to that small town once before. She wasn't sure why, but she knew that she would feel better within a library. Safer. Ironic, though, considering a library was where she had scarified herself.

Even after all this time, she could not shake the feeling. A deep set feeling within her heart that made it feel like her lungs were being crushed and her ribs painfully shrinking. It was happening all over again within her head, no matter how much she had tried to shake the visions. She had nightmares still, no matter how strong a sleep potion she brewed.

The skyline appeared in the distance, but Raven still walked slowly, in no hurry to get to it. The buildings were short, small against the horizon, and they faded blue and hazy against the sky. With each step Raven took, the buildings were coming closer to her, but they didn't look that way. It felt as if she were eternally walking towards a city that grew no bigger, that she would never get to. She could fly, quicker and more easily, but she didn't want to. She was not eager to go anywhere, and flying would only bring her to a something or someplace or some something she didn't want to go to. So it was better to walk, slowly, forever pacing on.

Raven sighed, wishing she could just disappear. Not disappear off the face of the Earth, which she could do, but just disappear entirely. Stop existing for a few moments, let the universes pass on without her and not disturb her. Without her disturbing them. Again she felt a painful tightening came clawing at her chest, like a giant hand holding her within its grasp and crushing her without her even knowing, unable to see the life being squeezed out of her.

Without warning, a hand sprang forward and grabbed her ankle, clutching it tightly enough to make the skin bruise.

Gasping in surprise, she spun around, eyes glowing and immediately ready to fight it off. She summoned her powers to her, and they flowed through her veins, ready to strike at the attackers. Mystic black forms appeared from the Earth, all reaching out for her, their faces molting to change into a different fear. They approached Raven, and Raven paused, understanding flooding through her just as her horror turned to tragedy.

"I created you," Raven whispered, looking into the absent face of the forms.

They said nothing, revealed nothing, only surged and spun around her, mocking her, pulling at the last strands of her sanity. Raven let the magic flow from her, bleed from her very hands and try to consume the demonic forms that slid around her. The strain was epic, weighting on her like never before. Her emotions were thick and heavy, and she nearly thought that she could not do it. She could not control them. Beasts and demons and shadows of her own creation, she had come to understand, that appeared from her without warning, without control. And she was unable to take them back. She tried again, her eyes glowing bright white and magic seeping from every pore in her body, extending outward from her very core of being. Thick and heavy, the darkness reigned.

If anyone had dared enter the forest, nonetheless had come to close to her and the evil creations of hers, they would have spun and ran. Ran as fast as they could have, wanting to flee the terrible feeling of their soul being stained with darkness. Just as a pure, white piece of paper could be stained with ink.

Her arms fell down by her side as she realized that she was only making it worse. They weren't too strong, they were a part of her. She was strong, so they were strong in return, and no one could win this. Raven knew that she had to get in control of her emotions, get in control of her mind and thoughts and rein these creatures back into where they have come from.

"I won't fight them," she said aloud, and crossed her legs. She floated into the air, chanting, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," repeatedly. Over and over.

She ignored the tugs of darkness at her, the force of them coming at her and surging around her body, pulling on some invisible force of being like a powerful magnet. She kept chanting her spell words, knowing that it had to work eventually. Eventually she would find her peace of mind, and they would fade away. And when she'd done that, she could begin to face her approaching dilemma once more. What to do about her birthday and how to rid the curse that still fell upon the days. But first, her state of mind. Her demons.

"I will not fight you," she shouted at them, keeping her eyes shut.

Silently, they seemed to laugh at her. Like they knew it was a lie and they mocked her for it, laughing their silent, hideous laugh that worked its way into the front of her brain. Threatening to delve deeper into her, replace her concentration with rage or sadness or fear. Whatever it was, she would not let them have it.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos,

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos,

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos,

"Azarath—"

Pointless. That was the word to describe it. Raven knew it was pointless. The shadows she had made had stilled as she kept chanting, but they stayed there. Waiting. Watching. Waiting for her to finish, for she couldn't meditate forever. And when she finally broke, they would be waiting, ready. So she stopped, knowing that meditation could not solve it. There was a way to rid herself of them, and all she needed to do was find it.

But they had won: she was afraid. She was afraid of them, for even though she had created them and they were a part of her, she could not control them. Every way she knew how to deal with her emotional trauma she had tried, but still they stayed with her. Like old friends who waited for you to remember them and rekindle the days of old.

Not knowing what else to do, she ran.

And they followed, flying after her, sliding through the air the same way shadows do. Normal shadows that did not have eyes, did not have thoughts. Did not have the desire to pull you into them, and do whatever they wished with you. A dark, wispy hand encaged around Raven's ankle again, and she found herself struggling against the form as she flew. She kicked at it, trying to free herself, and eventually she simply left her entire shoe with it, deciding it wasn't important.

Swirling like a circle around her, the dark forms cut her off, encaging her with their mere presence. Raven stopped flying, stalling and floating above the ground. She looked this way and that, trying to find an opening where she could escape. Raven knew that she could fly through them and their vapor-like bodies; it would be easy enough, but the damp coldness they would leave on her…

Not something she wanted.

Even above her they seemed to rise, settling in on her like a dome. Shadows with faces and forms not there, all of them wanting her. She had created them but she could not control them. Breathing deep, she decided to resign herself to her fate. Whatever they wanted, she would find out soon enough. Her body relaxed, her muscles loosening till they felt like water, and her face smoothing out, all the worry and fret gone from her expression.

Still, as they closed in on her, she couldn't help but panic.

She lashed out, swatting them away with the black cloak that she still bunched in her hand, and immediately they vanished into the air. Gone so quickly and without a trace, it was like blowing out a candle and watching the smoke rise into the air. Raven kept swatting at the forms, and all of them disappeared. Finally, they seemed to shrink back away from her. The air was growing warmer, and the depression that had been weighting down on the back of her mind was starting to fade, too. Shadows creeping back into the shadows.

Without thinking, she flung the cloak back onto her shoulders, clasping it deftly.

What a beautiful mistake it was.

A howling, screeching sound filled the air, followed by a burst of bright light as Raven chanted her spell words. Another terrible screech filled the air, echoing far and wide across the air, and the shadowy demons were torn apart, bit by bit, until they were gone and Raven only remained. Still, her power was coursing through her, faster than the blood in her veins, faster than the thoughts in her mind.

"Azarath…" Raven repeated, her feet hovering farther and farther from the ground.

Breaking across the sky were bright white and yellow lights, streaks of her power scorching the air, followed by the same howling. It looked like fire, illuminating the clouds in a way that no natural thing could. So great and so terrible. Raven's eyes were glowing bright white, and she felt the struggle for her second set of eyes to open. She fought to keep them closed, but despite all this was the force of her powers flowing out of her and into the unsuspecting world. The sky was alight with her fire, and she could feel her eyes slowly opening.

Hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of eyes looked upon the phenomena appearing right before them as it stretched wide across the sky. Stunned, she could see them, feel them. She could envision them all, so effortlessly. 

When the roaring and howling stopped, Raven let her body fall back down to the Earth, where she landed admist a cold black fire that surged around her body in a circle. Her black cloak flapped around her, swirling with the powerful winds she had caused, surging with the might of her magic. Eyes still alight, Raven brought her hands up, looking at them far too bewildered to think clearly.

The cloak had given her this force, this unnatural enhance on her powers. She felt it as easily as she could feel every nerve in her body, alight and at attention. Everything was crackling around her, glowing. She could somehow feel the light and heat of the black fires upon her, and even as she looked down at her hands she could see the sky alight with a white aurora, small tendrils of vapor-like black sinking into the clouds.

And, empath she was, a hundred miles away she could feel Robin say, "She is there."

Closing her palms into fists, Raven walked through the fire, her cloak flowing out behind her to look like giant raven wings flanking her body.

Somehow, deep with the subconscious she had let loose, this felt right to her. This power, it was unusual, but there was something eerie about it that whispered to her that she had come home, found her true calling.

A dark cloak for a dark day. Raven lifted her hands to unclasp it from around her, but found her hands would not respond. They stayed where they were, hovering in the air above her, still clutched into fists. They wouldn't undo the cloak, could not. Her body was shaking hard as she realized that she couldn't do it. Not by a supernatural power, but by the force of her emotions.

She whispered, "Azar…"


	9. Chapter 9

Two different memories were prominent within Raven's mind. They bounced around in her head, panging against the walls of her skull and bouncing back; rattling her brain. The clarity was almost frightening.

The gem was born of evil's fire

The gem shall be his portal

He comes to claim

He comes to sire

The end of all things mortal

The words echoed in her head like shouts in a vaulted cathedral, making her shudder. She clutched her arms, recoiling from the memory, but still she could not stop it; couldn't stop the memories from feasting on her soul, gnawing away at her and withering her away.

With a shout, the red markings that had been burned into her skin flew into the air, circling around her as her body was destroyed. Her heart was beating far too fast, an icy coldness had crept into her veins, and her mind was in turmoil. It had felt the way Raven always thought suicide would feel, but she had never expected it to be so violent. So, so violent. 

She shuddered again, remembering herself torn apart and only her human form remaining in the underworld as a child, scared and lost and without her memories. No memories of her team, or her life on Earth, or of her time on Azarath…nothing. She hadn't remembered Robin. Not at the time. But she had remembered her partial death. The death that was supposed to have killed the demonic part of her, and leave her only in her human form. But that hadn't been the case; she would always be half human, half demon. She could never run away from who she was, or what she was, no matter how hard she had tried.

Suddenly, another thought crept into her mind, one that she had never considered before. What if, when she partially died and her human self had been destroyed...what if she had become a full demon?

No, that is impossible, Raven told herself. She had been human. With no powers, nothing demonic about her. She was just a normal, plain child, lost within the depths of hell.

Besides, Azar had told her—

"Ugh!" Raven groaned, putting her hands to her head. "Is there literally anything in my life that hasn't been prophesied?" she screamed out.

The howl of the wind was her only answer. Her ears pricked at the noise, listening intently. Upon the howl of the winds was something else, something not from the storm winds gusting around her and through the trees. She pricked her ears again, convinced that she had heard something. It wasn't the howling of the wind, or the sound of the insects and owls coming to life, or the pounding of her own heart beating rapidly in her chest.

She told herself that she feared nothing, and made herself believe it fully before taking a few steps forward, pausing only to listen.

There was definitely something there; something that called for her attention.

But there was nothing to see, only sense. Raven's empathic powers could sense another living being… of some sort. Raven's shoe kicked at something on the ground, and her heart nearly stopped when she looked down. Lifting her boot up, she saw her communicator placed at her feet. The same communicator that she had buried within the woods, meaning to reclaim when this hellish week was over. Raven did nothing for a long time, merely staring at the device and wondering how it could have gotten to her. Finally, she reached down and picked it up, turning it over in her hands.

"How…?"

There was a mewling sound, and she snapped her head around to see a small, green-eyed cat looking at her. The cat sat calmly, at the base of a tree on top of a great root that sunk deep into the earth, unblinking and calm. The appearance of the cat made her think of the second memory that had been rattling around in her brain for some time now: the memory of Azar at a loom, weaving away while magic was thick in the air. Raven remembered being very small and full of fear whenever she saw Azar at her loom, for the entire room would be cast into a powerful darkness as she worked away at her craft. The clacking of the loom still rang in her ears.

While Azar was at her loom, she always had a cat with her, one that would sit near her while she wove. It looked similar to this one, green eyes and dark fur, a calm demeanor as it took in everything around it. Seeing those calm green eyes calmed her when nothing else would, in that room full of shadows and powerful, mystic energy.

Her communicator started beeping in her hand again. Raven knew she had turned it off…

Had turned it off and buried it underground and left it behind, but here it was, at her feet and then in her palm, turned on and beeping. The same spot where she had left it behind was pinpointed on the map: in the woods where she had first arrived on Earth.

The cat let out a small meow, and jumped off the root. With its tail twitching, and many a backwards glance at Raven, the cat disappeared into the forest, camouflaged almost instantly and vanishing from her sight. Raven didn't follow.

Pressing down the buttons, she turned the communicator off and hid it away in her cloak with a sigh. Reaching into her new cloak still felt strange to her.

The shadows followed her out of the forest. Upon leaving the density of the closed in trees and thick canopy, Raven felt freer suddenly. After the closed-in, tight feeling of everything pressed in around her constantly, Raven was out in the open and she could breathe easier now.

Still, the shadows had followed her out. They clung to her, as Raven drew them forward, over her body and let them linger there. A source of darkness that she kept with her at all times, hidden under her cloak and upon her spirit. A comfort that she knew all too well, being in the darkness.

Somewhere beyond the wide stretch of open land and sky lay the next city she planned to reside in. Raven still hadn't much idea as to what she would do once she got there, but hopefully she would keep her friends safe. But all the while, worry and doubt fogged her mind. Her friends would be safe, that much would be true, but what if she caused disaster in this city? Her mere presence causing destruction, but this time without the Titans to save them...?

She took a deep breath, trying to cleanse her mind, but the fog clouding her thoughts didn't dissipate; they lingered there, keeping her rooted to the ground where she stood. She looked far on, beyond the stormy sky that was darkening with the approaching night and the giant terrain of rolling, grassy hills. The city skyline stood stark against the natural scenery around it, like a blight upon the Earth. She still planned to walk there, despite the doubts weighing her down.

You will cause destruction, said a voice in her head. What were you thinking? Of course you'll cause destruction. Just think about it; you're cursed, and no matter where you go, no matter how you squirm, there's no running away from it. Nothing you can do to stop it.

The voice was too much. Her powers lashed out, crackling black lightning around her fingertips as she released her emotions. The trees were struck, and the ancient roots seemed to groan deep inside the earth. The air felt like lightning was about to touch down, with only a few milliseconds to get out of the way.

Just move, Raven told herself.

One foot in front of the other, taking her away from the forest. Her one shoe scuffed up against the ground, and her head hung down to watch the blades of grass part beneath her feet. Soon she would come to the next city. Too soon. And once there, her fears would either prove to be right or wrong.

_________________________________________________

Robin had nearly reached the end of his patience. He was supposed to be searching for his friend, not collecting another petty thief every five minutes. Robin brought the next one down quickly with a plethora of bird-a-rangs and strong rope, and then he was on his motorcycle again. He didn't even look back, for the next the criminals were being taken care of just as he hopped back onto the vehicle, wasting no time in switching the power on and driving off. Stopping them was one thing, apprehending them another.

The towers of the city flew past him, all in a blur of glass and shadows and neon lights. Deep rumbling vibrations from the motorcycle traveled up his body as he drove, irritating Robin. He put his hand to his chest, where his ribs seemed to rattle and the flesh burn, but didn't once let it dissuade him.

Even at his top speed, Starfire flew quickly alongside him, catching up to him once the police had collected the robbers.

"Robin," she said to him, grabbing his attention. Even over the roar of the wind, Robin could hear her voice clearly. "Robin, I am as eager to find and comfort Raven as you are, but I do believe that you are neglecting our duties here."

Robin said nothing to her in response. He knew that he wasn't neglecting anything. He had done his job, time and time again, bringing the bad guys to their feet even when searching for his friend was his top priority. How many more times did he have to tie someone up? How many more bird-a-rangs must he throw, and how many more hours did he have to wait to find her?

Raven was out there, he knew it, and her tracking signal had been on the move.

For the longest time, he could not figure out why it had remained in a single place in the middle of nowhere for hours on end, but once it had shown movement, Robin was right on the case. It would have been easier, if she had stayed in one spot in the forest, but when he imagined what she was doing there, the worst of thoughts came to his mind. After all, that was where that mysterious calling had come from...

She could have dropped it, his mind said to him, and that was the most comforting thought of all, but other images clouded his mind, images of Raven clutching the communicator with stiff fingers, blood trickling over her skin as she was dying, her body unable to move. That was almost the worst of them. Almost. There were far worse thoughts. Other thoughts…he couldn't and didn't want to recall. But he could feel the presence of them, like he could see their shadow but not their silhouettes, unable to see the true face of horror that would give another life to his nightmares.

He drove on, ignoring Starfire.

"Robin," she said again. Even if he didn't look her way, he did listen to her. He owed her that much. "Robin, please listen to me. I am sure Raven is fine. So what if her communicator is still here on Earth with us? She has told me that she went back to Azarath. I do not see why we should not believe what she had said."

"I know she's not in Azarath," Robin said between clenched teeth.

"How?" Starfire questioned.

Robin turned the corner of the street, and Starfire rounded the corner with him, not missing a beat within the labyrinth of the roads that crossed through the city and would eventually lead out of town. Starfire may not have known the city was well as Robin did, but she knew enough, and it was rare to catch her at a time when she was lost in the streets. To the point of never.

"Robin, how can you know whether or not Raven is back in Azarath?"

"I just do, Starfire." Robin clutched his chest as he spoke, the strain on him becoming more annoying. Luckily, his flesh wasn't screaming in pain. Not yet, anyway. The faintest trace of Raven's healing touch lingered deep within him.

"But how?" Starfire questioned.

No matter how she looked at it, she just couldn't see things the way Robin could. He was so confident that Raven was still here on Earth, and Starfire was still full of doubts. She trusted in his judgement, and it did explain why her monitor was still here and still moving (for if she had taken it to Azarath there would be no signal for it), but she found it hard to believe that Raven had lied to her. Why would Raven lie to her? Were they not good friends? Did she not trust Starfire? Starfire believed that Raven would talk to her, tell her things, take some sort of comfort in their friendship and not keep so many secrets. Not believe that she would be outcast if she made a simple mistake. She kept following Robin all around the roads, her eyes locked on his face, trying to work out what was happening within his brain. No matter how hard she looked, she just couldn't think about it the same way he did.

Eventually the tall sky-scraping buildings dwindled, turning shorter and stouter, and the urban area of Jump City morphed into more suburban settings. It didn't feel right, to be out of Jump City while two of their friends were still behind them. Almost all of Starfire's life on Earth had consisted of Jump City, and it felt like a tear in her heart every time she left it. But Raven waited beyond, or so Robin said.

When Robin's motorcycle left the pavement, that was when Starfire's resolve broke. She flew in front of the bike, and planted her feet on the ground. Her hands gripped the handlebars, crushing Robin's fingers beneath hers. The tires spun but the bike just wouldn't move forward anymore, no matter how hard or fast the wheels turned. Dirt flew out from beneath them, and Robin was yelling at her, telling her to let go. When he saw that Starfire wouldn't let go, he turned the bike off, figuring that this wasn't worth wasting gasoline over.

"What is it, Star?" Robin asked impatiently.

Starfire opened her mouth to respond, but the simultaneous beeping of both their communicators cut off whatever it was she was about to say. Robin clicked it on, furiously looking down at the screen and demanding what the hell they needed now. Starfire didn't take out her own communicator, but shared the screen with Robin. As she leaned in close to his head, she could feel the immense amount of negative energy seeping from him. Starfire may not have been an empath like Raven, but she could sense the fury just beneath Robin's skin.

"Another criminal?" Robin asked.

"Another villain," said Cyborg. On the monitor, Cyborg's face grew stern, serious, and his face contorted as he tried to tell his friends what he knew they needed to hear. Starfire glanced from Cyborg to Robin and back again. A rotten feeling had brewed up inside of her, and she wasn't ready to face his next words.

"What villain?" Robin asked.

"The HIVE have a new leader…well, an old leader, from before…"

"No!" Robin said, slamming his hands down. Both Starfire and Cyborg jumped at his explosion.

Not the next words…

"Slade's back."


	10. Chapter 10

Robin narrowed his eyes and gripped the communicator in his fist so hard that he looked like he was about to break it. He hissed out the name between his teeth, and then went dead silent, staring at the communicator with something akin to hatred, but ran far deeper.

Starfire shrunk back a little, knowing all too well what Robin was like when it came to Slade.

And what he was like when it came to Raven.

To have the two of them to worry about almost always sent his heart racing and left his mind shattered, as he focused on only two things: keeping Raven safe and capturing Slade.

Cyborg could sense the tension on the other end of the line, and just as Starfire had done, he too shrunk back a little. He hadn't wanted to tell Robin, not really, but he needed to know. They needed all of the team together to defeat Slade...well, all of the team that they could get. There was no other way to take him down, they were forced to admit. Robin's reaction had been what Cyborg was expecting; to see the obsessed, driven-to-near-madness Robin that he was so used to seeing around this particular enemy.

"Dude," Cyborg said to him, raising up a mechanical hand, "I get what you must be feeling right now. I really do. But don't put stress on yourself. Alright?"

Robin made no answer. Instead, he clicked the communicator off, making Cyborg's face disappear into a blank screen. He pocketed the device and fixed his gaze on some point in the distance, lost in thought. His knuckles were gripping the handlebars of his motorbike far too hard, and his jaw was clenched to the point where his joints were starting to hurt.

In his mind, he turned over the option. To Robin, there was usually only black and white, good and bad, the right choice and the wrong choice. Right now, he was seeing two choices before him: to go after Raven and leave Slade alone (for now), or to go after Slade and leave Raven alone (for now). To him the question was: Which was the right choice?

Starfire wanted to help Robin, to break him out of the dramatic mood that he was in, but she did not know how. Slade created something in him that was feral in nature, and she remembered with painful accuracy how he had snapped at her. How he had hurt her, made her afraid both of him and for him, so she was reluctant to do anything.

"Robin," she said timidly, placing a hand upon his shoulder. Even with her fingers gently brushing across his skin, she could feel the tension there beneath the surface. Spikes of worry shot through her brain.

"I know, Starfire," he said to her. His voice sounded tense.

There was knot in his throat that he was trying to speak through, breathe past. Normally, those kinds of knots came with crying, but Robin was not crying. He didn't know what he was doing…or what he would do. The option kept spinning around in his mind. Maybe if the black and the white spun fast enough, it would turn into a gray, and then the option would be simple. Robin swallowed the knot, and then turned to look at Starfire. He tried to soften his features, to make Starfire not worry. But the worry was there, the expression etched in all her features. Trying to smile only made him grimace, and Starfire's eyebrows knitted together. Her hands went out in front of her, near his body, in case she needed to catch him or fend him.

"Don't worry, Star," he said to her. Did his voice sound strange? He couldn't know.

"What will you do?" Starfire asked him.

Like before, just as he drew breath to answer the question, the communicator started beeping and ringing again. With an annoyed sigh, Robin flipped the thing out and jabbed his finger down on the screen, clicking it on. Cyborg's face once more. "Robin, look, I really think you're needed here."

Robin actually started to grind his teeth. Even Cyborg could hear it. He thought is sounded painful…way too painful.

Exchanging a grimace of his own, he continued on: "Robin, look. Slade's back and things are most likely going to be….well…chaotic…I guess..." His voice trailed off as he fought to find the words. But there were no words, not for an enemy like Slade. The reminder drove a spike into Robin's soul, and with hot tears stinging his eyes and a soul full of regret, he spun the motorbike around.

"I'm coming," Robin told them both.

He hated himself for the choice, but he hated Slade more. He had to believe Raven was okay, for now. He would still come for her, when Slade was defeated and put behind bars, his body broken to the point where he could do no more evil. Thoughts of an ambushed Slade plagued his mind.

Starfire flew right along beside him, heading back to the city just as he did.

His words were lost on the roar of the wind, but he whispered, "I'm sorry, Raven."

Raven was strong, and could handle herself in almost any situation. But Robin felt like he was abandoning her, leaving her to some awful fate that he couldn't comprehend. Deep down, where the hatred for himself was kindled, words formed and ran up and into his mind. It spoke one phrase: You made the wrong choice. Raven was strong, which meant that if she wanted to attack herself, she would have the strength to do it.

"I'm so sorry."

________________________________________________________

"What you have concealed you shall become!" Slade shouted at her, ripping her cloak off of her mercilessly. "You have no other choice."

His words burned into her. She needed to escape it, needed to stop it, even though she knew there was no stopping it and there was no escaping it. Eyes glowing, she lashed out at him, both furious and terrified. He caught her hands, gripping them in his fists, and burned the markings into her body. Raven felt herself screaming, but she couldn't hear it. Her blood felt like ice, her heart was beating much too fast, and waves of pain rippled through her body, feeling like hot knives slicing open her skin. The red markings sliced into her skin, tearing her clothes off of her as Slade looked on. When he stopped, she collapsed to the ground, half naked and nearly sobbing.

In reality, she knew what happened next, but in this terrifying nightmare of a dream, that is not what happened. In this nightmare, Slade was different. More sinister. His eye had malice of a different kind in it, and Raven shrank back away from it. It wasn't something that Trigon had blessed him with, it was an evil of his own that had been kindled inside of him and now raged inside of his eyes. He had ripped her clothes off of her, hurting her both with the bruises from his fists and the sliced open skin now searing red with glyphs, but he didn't stop there. Not this time. He didn't throw her off the roof, but he threw her down on top of it instead.

Raven hit the metal roof with a grunt, her teeth clacking together. She opened her eyes to see him standing over her, framed by a blood red sky, the Mark of Scath on the forehead of his mask. She grit her teeth, summoning her powers to her, but they wouldn't come. She tried to stand up, but he put his foot down on her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs.

And as the nightmare progressed, he threw himself down onto her.

She would scream in the nightmares, the pain feeling almost too real, as she tried to push Slade away from her. But that would only make it hurt worse. There was hardly any sound that reverberated in her head, despite the fact that she could feel the mental strain of screaming. Were dreams supposed to feel so real? So vivid and at the same time so vague? She could feel him, hear herself scream, almost hear the invisible peck of black vultures feasting on carnage, of screams stuck into the stones. Slade held her shoulders down as she tried to escape yet again, and she chanted and didn't chant at the same time.

As her nightmare continued on, she felt the eyes of Trigon upon her, watching the two of them and laughing his evil, wicked laugh. It bore into Raven's soul, crushing it into oblivion. Her veins felt bloodless, and she hadn't enough tears. Make it stop! her mind screamed, and yet it echoed wordlessly through the dome of the sky. Make it stop! Make him stop!

Turning her head, she whispered, "Father, help me."

Trigon only laughed in response.

…

Raven awoke from her dream with a scream. Her lungs fought for air as her mind tried to place together the reality around her. Where she really was, in this time and place. Slowly, the elusive shapes of dizzying designs and colors started to fade, and she could see the world around her clearly. But even when she saw, there was the hum of confusion in her fatigued mind.

Chills erupted on her skin, and she rubbed herself for comfort. The dream had felt all too real, and it was the same dream she'd had so many times before. When Slade had first ripped her clothes off of her, the dreams of him violating her came so often that she couldn't close her eyes at night. But as time had passed, the nightmares faded. Raven could have almost tricked her mind into forgetting that they had ever occurred, but now this.

The dreams came running back to her. All of them almost at once.

She closed her eyes and sighed.

Raven sat by a large window, high up from the ground floor. The sill was deep, giving her plenty of room to stretch out. As the dream faded, Raven remembered. Once having arrived in the city, she didn't know where to go, so she had settled on a library, like she had been planning back in the woods. Libraries usually made her feel calm and collected, and she loved spending so much time around the books. Quite ironic, since it was a library that Trigon had ascended through. Even so, Raven couldn't be scared away from libraries, no matter what horrible history she'd had with them. 

Maybe that's why I had the nightmare, Raven wondered.

Outside, beyond the window, there was darkness and storm clouds and the patter of gentle rain. Intracloud lightning as soft as a nightlight, and thunder so distant it sounded like the rolling of a large marble across a wooden floor.

Shifting to the edge of the large, circular sill that the window was buried into, Raven looked down at the library around her. She was about three stories up off the ground, and below her a wealth of books and towering shelves and cushioned chairs filled the immense room. Vaguely, more of the memories came back to her; of her walking into the building wet with rainwater, and searching around the shelves for something purely out of habit, and then seeing the large windowsills and flying up towards them.

Solved the problem of where she would sleep that night.

Her empathic conscious reached out, drifting across the room, and sensed about three other living beings in the library. They seemed far off to her, and looking around she could see only one of them, many yards away and lost in a book. The place was nearly abandoned. Raven felt comforted by that. She reached her conscious out even further, wondering if those dark shadows had followed her here from the forest. The lights were turned low, but the shadows in the library were shallow, leaving almost no place for them to hide. She scanned with her mind and her eyes, twice, before contenting herself on the fact that they were not here.

They were gone.

For good...? Raven hoped.

With a soft groan, and a languid stretch of her muscles, Raven disappeared back into the depth of the sill, curling up and enjoying the storm just beyond the transparent pane. It was soothing, and as far as she knew, she hadn't caused any harm to anyone. Hopefully, she never would.

Raven thought about spending the remainder of her time here, in this library, where she felt safe and comforted and no one was around to hurt. No disasters would arise simply because of her presence. It would be quite nice, to stay in a library for the next few days while she waited out the horror that was the anniversary of her birth. She would walk freely among the aisles, collecting books she wished to read, and curling up in her little secret hideaway and losing herself in the life of a new protagonist. One that didn't have the life she did. And then she would return the books to the shelves, pick a new one, and do the same again until nightfall came and she would return to the windowsill to sleep.

In such a large library, that looked newly built (maybe in the past decade or so), there would be clean drinking water from the fountains, wifi and internet access, and soft chairs to curl up in that weren't becoming broken down yet. She could last the next few days without food, since she didn't eat much anyway. But if she needed to, there would be no librarians breathing down her neck if she snuck food in. Plus, Raven thought she had spied a vending machine somewhere near the checkout counters. She didn't have any money, but she could simply reach her hand in and pull out some food. She'd repay them, when she got the chance. 

Raven let herself run away in these thoughts, daydreaming of a peaceful stay in the library. She imagined herself happily lounging on one of the plush chairs, lost within a book of old that had magic and adventure leaping off every page. She imagined herself bent over one of the water fountains, sipping happily the cold, refreshing water and the blood in her veins flowing healthily along as she drank. She imagined quiet days bleeding into quiet nights bleeding into quiet dawns.

A birthday complete of all those things, and nothing more, would have been the best birthday she would ever have had.

If it were not for the dark spots blooming in her mind and whispering to her of fallacy, she would have believed it, relaxed, maybe even have liked her birthday. But she knew something was coming, something worse, something unseen. A knot was in her throat, and it kept her from the peace of enjoying anything. With a breathy sigh released in time with distant rumbling thunder, Raven swung her body around and let her legs hang free from the windowsill.

Reaching out again, she still only felt the presence of three beings.

There were many plants around the library, and those she could feel the life essence of only slightly; like spotting a star in the sky before dusk had arrived. Bookshelves as tall as giants, with ladders all over them, bolted to rollers along the sides of the massive structures. A large glass dome was in the center of the ceiling, but it was pitch dark and spotted with little wet droplets. Warm lights covered the room in a soft glow, and it made the place feel much more welcome.

Gripping her unclasped cloak into her hand, Raven kicked herself off of the high-up windowsill, and floated back down onto the library's floor. Her landing was so soft, there was not even a small tap when her shoes touched the floor. She first went to the nearby water fountains, and drank and drank until she was full.

How long had it been since she last had some water?

She didn't know, but seeing as how a burn in her throat became relieved (a burn that she hadn't noticed until now), it must have been a long while. The soothing nectar quenched her parched throat, and suddenly breathing became a bit easier. The knot in her throat, which she had summed up to a swell of tears just beneath the surface, dissipated.

She spun to head into the numerous aisles of the book cases when,

"Meow."

Don't tell me, Raven thought.

Before she even turned to look down, she knew what she was about to see. The little black cat with the green eyes had followed her here, into the library. Thoughtlessly, Raven reached to touch her communicator, still clasped onto her cloak and still turned off. The cat sat down, curling its tail around its legs, and looked at her fondly. Thunder rolled outside, still sounding quiet, and Raven could faintly make out the sound of purring. The cat looked up at her expectantly, and Raven looked down at it suspiciously.

"You want something," Raven whispered.

Could it be…?

"Ella…?"

It did look a lot like Azar's cat, now that Raven looked at it clearly, without the shadows of the woods distorting her sight. The cat gave another small mewl, as if answering her question. With a sigh, Raven said, "Ella." Now with more confidence, for this cat seemed to be the very same. Looked exactly like her, from what Raven's memories could recall, and she was acting like Ella did. Along with the strange way that she was following Raven. Perhaps she was drawn by the Azarathian magic in the cloak?

She—Ella—sat with her tail curled around her feet, looking up at Raven with bright eyes. She gave another small mewl, as if trying to tell Raven something. But Raven didn't speak cat, so she hadn't any idea what she wanted. But what Raven did know is that this was getting too out of hand. She had finally found a peaceful spot to wait out her birthday, hopefully where no one would be hurt, and now a memory of Azarath came for her, wanting something from her. The cloak within her hand became warmer.

Turning on her heel, Raven walked back away from the water fountain and Ella, heading back to her spot in the large windowsill. Ella got to her feet and walked along with Raven, weaving in and out of her legs as she walked, as cats often did. Raven slowed her pace, trying to not kick her. Ella purred and rubbed up against her more, her back arching and her tail raising in the air. Unable to resist, Raven leaned over and pet her, rubbing her fingers along her head and then down along her back. She'd always had a soft spot for cats.

"Okay, I admit," Raven whispered, her voice so soft and quiet it was nearly inaudible. "You're cute, and I enjoy seeing you again."

Ella purred in response. She kept brushing up against Raven's legs, tail high and eyes closed. Raven still stepped away from her, not even looking back, meaning to go back to her ledge. Ella chased after her, rubbing up against her legs, her purring become louder.

"Yes, it's nice to see you," Raven whispered softly.

Raven was starting to feel tired; tired of all of this. In her mind, ever since the day she had been old enough to understand her destiny, she had always been asking herself why. Why had it been her? Why couldn't she rid herself of this? She had destroyed the world. Then she had repaired it, brought all those people back to life. But it still wasn't enough. Raven felt far too tired of all of this.

"Mrow!"

Raven looked back down, startled out of her thoughts. Ella's meows were becoming louder. Raven glanced around, focused her thought on the mental energy around her. No one seemed bothered by Ella's loud and sharp cries. Kneeling down, Raven whispered, "What?"

She knew she wouldn't answer, but she hoped that just acknowledging her would calm her somewhat, make the cat quiet. She was sort of right; Ella quieted, rubbing against Raven's legs. Raven's attention was fully on the cat now, so when Ella took steps away from her, Raven's eyes followed. The cat walked towards the bookshelves away from her, and then looked back at Raven expectedly. But Raven didn't move, didn't even want to move. Again, the tiredness was coming over her, seeping into her very bones. It was a weight that was pressing down on her from all sides, and she just didn't have the energy or the interest for whatever game this cat was playing.

She floated down onto the floor, cross-legged and leaning up against the enormous bookshelf behind her. Thousands of books lined the shelves, all different colors and sizes and binding textures. The smell of old paper met her nose, along with the scents of old memories and tears and rapid, racing thoughts as the pages turned beneath the fingers of eager readers. Boredom from all the students who had toiled away at the desks; gentle joy and a quiet understanding at the soft, subtle lines of poetry from the introverts. Raven could sense of all this, even the people within the library now, not from memory or history. Their thoughts and feelings she could read. A student whose mind seemed dazed and confused, yet a willpower within as they tried to sharpen their mind to absorb the knowledge as they sharpened their gaze so the words wouldn't blur on the page. An old lover of historical classics, musing away more at the thought of a classical book than the actual story written on the pages.

And, Raven could sense, the thoughts and feelings of the cat. Their was an eagerness within her, and an impatience, and a frustration that Raven was not picking up the hint. Prodding a little further, Raven discovered that Ella wanted Raven to follow her. There were strings in her mind, a sense of adventure that must be carried out, all connecting to a focal point, which was the goal, the destination.

The cat sat before her, looking just as meditative as Raven.

Raven pulled the warm, black cloak over her lap, bundling it up and warming her legs with it. The cat looked at it with longing, like she wanted to curl up in the nice little bed Raven had made in her lap and sleep there, perfectly contented. Raven waited to see if she would, but she could sense a purpose within the cat that didn't allow for sleep.

Now that's odd, Raven thought.

A minute ticked by, then two, before Raven lifted herself to her feet.

The cat stood up immediately, spinning around with her tail flicking. Raven sighed, thinking how stupid and ridiculous this was, but let the cat lead her to the doors of the library. Raven's feet stopped when she reached the threshold. The small little cat stepped out into the rainy world, stopping when Raven wouldn't follow.

Raven hesitated, but she didn't know why. She knew that stepping outside wouldn't cause destruction, wouldn't end her or even hurt her. So why she was reluctant was beyond her. Raven thought that maybe it would be like leaving her safe place for good, that she might never be able to return. If this cat was leading her far away somewhere, then that might very well be the case.

Raven didn't like the thought, so she stood on the threshold, watching and waiting and thinking, trying to make up her mind.

Finally, she took a deep breath, cleansing all of her thoughts, and stepped outside. The cold of the outside world struck her immediately. She put her cloak on, wrapping it around her shoulders and clasping it at her neck. It warmed her almost instantly, and she bundled herself up in the soft black fabric as she walked into the dark, rainy night. Following the cat that she thought might be Ella, to somewhere she didn't know.

Even if all this was stupid, she figured it couldn't hurt. So she followed the cat down the sidewalk and into the streets and across the grassy fields and parks. Every few steps, the cat—Ella, she was completely sure—would turn back and look at Raven, making sure that she was still following.

As they walked through the wet night together, Raven stepped up beside her, and used her cloak to protect the cat as best she could from the chill and rain. Ella looked up at her, blinking her eyes very slowly. Raven knew that was a thanks.

Lightning appeared as they walked on, and Ella began shivering. Her steps slowed, and her eyes grew wide with fear. Every time a loud clap of thunder exploded in the air, Ella stopped completely, rubbing up against Raven's leg to calm herself. They both pressed on, trying their best to ignore the storm around them.

"Are you leading me back to Robin?" Raven asked suddenly. She looked down at the cat, as if expecting her to answer her, but the cat did nothing. Only kept the slow, even pace she was walking at.

Raven didn't know why she thought that. But she could sense something odd about Robin. Something eerie, from far away, the stress and thoughts of him and the rest of the team reaching her. It was the vaguest of feelings, one that she didn't fully know how to process. It was if she were imagining a memory she had made up long ago. It just didn't feel right to her, to feel such empathic emotions coming to her from so far away.

"Are you leading me back to Robin?" Raven asked the cat again.

Nothing. Not a pause in step, or a blink of the eyes, or a faint meow or mewl. Just nothing.

Her mind kept spinning as she thought about this. She was getting closer to Jump City with every step; that much she knew just from pure sense of direction. What if this cat really was taking her back to Jump City?

Finally realizing how crazy and illogical she was, Raven stopped walking. Ella stopped immediately as well, not wanting to leave the protection of the cloak.

"What the hell am I even doing?" Raven wondered aloud. A flash of lightning and another burst of thunder was her only answer. But it made her mind no clearer.

With an agitated huff of breath, Raven ducked inside the closest public building she could find, the cat close on her heels. The interior was a relief; no more cold or wind or rain. The bright lights were a pain, though, and Raven put her hand up to her eyes to shield herself. Didn't even pull her hood down, for the light was that intense. Raven thought it was the shock of contrast that made her nearly blind. She had just gone from walking in a near pitch black darkness and stepped into this monstrosity.

She had yet to realize just how wrong she was.


	11. Chapter 11

"We cannot hide the truth from her forever," Azar said.

There was a tiredness in her voice. She and Arella had gone over this too many times, not just in the past few days or the past few weeks but for months and months that eventually stretched into years. The two women had spent nearly four years discussing the matter, and each time Arella was adamant about putting it off. Azar knew that Raven needed to know her fate, her destiny, her heritage, everything. Knowledge was power, knowledge was a necessity. But yet Arella kept saying no, she wanted Raven to have as much of a childhood as she could. So Arella fought as hard as she could to keep the truth from Raven, to hide it from her. Let her think that she was a normal child.

Azar could understand why she did this. She wanted a peaceful, contented childhood for the small girl just as Arella wanted it. But she knew that she could not do that. Raven needed to know, and she needed to prepare.

Azar knew that one of these days, Raven was going to have questions. Questions that Arella would answer honestly, for she had been growing more and more earnest in the years she had been in Azarath. Just a single question, a single simple question, would break the barrier that Arella was trying to contain, and it would lead to a flood of more questions.

Perhaps that is what Arella is waiting on, Azar thought to herself. Perhaps she waits for the time when Raven confronts this herself, instead of us telling her. When Raven wants to know.

And then it would be the end of her happy childhood, said a little black voice in her head.

"I'm not going to hide it from her forever," Arella told Azar. "I'm just waiting a little while longer. Look at her," Arella said, gesturing to her daughter. "She is so content right now, knowing nothing and having no burden at all upon her shoulders. This is such a tender age." Arella looked Azar deep in the eyes, as if challenging her. "How can you tell a child so young that she will…" Arella trailed off, the words too painful for her to say. She turned her gaze back to Raven, who was happily and obliviously playing with the orbs of black magic that she had created without even realizing it.

"The weight of the world rests on her shoulders…literally. It's a burden almost no one can handle, so what makes you think a mere child can bear it?" Arella asked Azar.

She tore her eyes away from her, looking at Raven with gentle, nurturing eyes. Azar's heart ached as she watched Arella. There was a look of such love in her eyes, and the instinct to protect her daughter that was so strong in her that it was almost as visible as the white robes that she wore.

"I am not asking Raven to bear the weight of the world. I only wish to tell her the truth," Azar said calmly.

"The truth being that the weight of the world rests upon her shoulders," Arella shot back.

Even after all the meditation, the calming practices, the yoga that Azar had instructed her in, all the pacifist teachings and lessons on peacefulness, Arella still had the essence of something feral inside of her. Azar knew now that it could never fully leave her. Arella was nurturing and loving as any mother could ever be, but her defiant, wild side would always be a part of her as well. Azar accepted that.

But she knew that she had to work around it. There was a dark, clawing feeling somewhere inside of Azar; something that she couldn't even place. It had traveled from her gut and the pit of her stomach, along her spine to send chills to the rest of her body, into her head to give her nightmares and daymares, down along her arms and to the tips of her fingers where her powers threatened to spark. Even into her throat where she could taste this omen.

"Arella, please try to see things from a different perspective. Yes, Raven deserves a calm, happy childhood. But she cannot be kept in the dark for long. Just look at her—" Azar said, pointing to the young child, "her powers—her dark powers—have already become so strong at such a tender age. She plays with her powers without realizing what it is or where they come from. She does not know what gives her her gifts, and she does not know the consequences of it, and she does not know the true power behind it. Her power is strong, already I can see that. It will not be long before such a thing can consume her, and she will become hurt by her ignorance."

Arella finally started giving into Azar's words. Deep down, she knew this was true. She could see things from Azar's perspective just as well as Azar could see things from hers. But she was stubborn in her ways.

"It has yet to become a problem," Arella said. "So why address it now? Please, let it wait just a while longer," she pleaded.

Azar sighed. Raven was almost her own child, almost her own disciple, but she respected Arella's wishes. She was her mother, and her own opinions were just as valid as Azar's own, if not more so. So she kept quiet, as she had so many times before, and let Arella keep Raven in the dark about all of this.

It hurt her heart. Azar felt that dark, clawing thing inside of her. It felt so much like regret had settled itself into her heart, near the bottom where the weight could pull it down even further. Azar thought of what the impending consequences were starting to creep up on her, sucking at her ankles, threading itself through her skin. It whispered in her ears whenever she thought too long or too hard about Raven's future. It was starting to hurt to breathe, and Azar left the room. She was off to meditate, control her emotions as well as her own surreal powers, for she needed control and peace of mind.

Arella stayed behind, in one of the rooms of the outer temples, kneeling down and playing with her daughter. She put her hands upon the black orbs floating in the air before Raven, and felt that they were strong. They were made of practically nothing, nothing besides the evil of Trigon's power in her veins, but yet they were something far too real.

Just as Raven's destiny…her birthright, as some were calling it…was far too real.

Raven was so young, so innocent. Her violet eyes were bright and enthusiastic, like she believed that nothing bad would ever happen to her, and that nothing was wrong within any of the worlds.

She possessed her childish innocence that, once shattered, could never be gotten back. Arella thought about telling her, but in her mind's eye, she could see Raven's eyes withering into darkness and despair. It would feel as if she were destroying her own child. How could she live with herself after she had done that? The guilt would be crushing, and Raven's pain could last her entire life.

So let her enjoy the few fading moments that she has, Arella thought to herself.

She smiled at Raven, and watched her daughter return her smile. It was bright and happy, childlike in every way. Don't destroy it, said the words in Arella's head. Pure bliss was painted upon her gray cheeks and crinkling her eyes, and when Arella looked at her, she couldn't help but feel hopeful. A child of darkness and evil, and yet Arella felt so full of love as she watched her. 

She played with her demonic daughter on the floor of the temple, losing track of time. Becoming lost in simple moments like these was far too easy. Arella loved her daughter so much. Despite what she was, despite what had happened to her to get Raven; the violent way she had been conceived. She loved her so much, and she was so happy to have her in her life. It was the last thing that gave her hope and joy in this world. How could she ever scar her like that?

By the time night had fallen, Raven had fallen asleep in her mother's lap.

Arella stroked her soft, purple hair before she picked her up, walking her back to her room with her cradled in her arms.

Raven slept within one of the higher towers of the temples, with her room so close to Azar's. Arella laid her down within her small bed, kissing her on her forehead and tucking her in before returning to her own chambers. She slept close to Azar's own private chambers as well, near her study instead of her bedroom, but it was a place still considered sacred to nearly everyone in Azarath.

The only person who hadn't considered it sacred was long gone and long dead, pulled into the fires of Limbo seven years ago. Not a single thought that he had survived. Hopefully Juris, the man who had nearly killed her daughter all those years ago, had not suffered much. Azar had taught her how to forgive, and Arella was slowly becoming to forgive the dead man for his sins. His violent, horrible sins.

She will bring evil among us, the magistrate had said. She must go back to Limbo.

It was like a scar upon Arella's memory. It no longer hurt, but it was still ugly to look at, still brought back memories of when it had first been inflicted. So yes, it was still something she hated to dwell on.

Back in her own room, Raven slept soundly. She was young, so she needed her sleep. In her tiredness, she could sleep for hours upon hours. She had stayed awake until she couldn't anymore and then fell into such a deep sleep that it would take something major to wake her up.

Something major, like the sound of a whispering voice speaking gently in Raven's head, creeping into her dreams.

"Raven," whispered the voice. It sounded warm, caring, and Raven liked it. It reminded her of her mother, and of Azar (who was like a second mother to her), and of the soft-spoken monks with the kind hearts.

Yes? she asked in her mind.

"Raven, how are you?"

I am fine, she thought back.

"Please, get out of bed. Come downstairs. I want to talk to you."

Raven awoke, her eyes peeling open slowly. She yawned and stretched and left the comfort of her small bed in her room, grabbing her small white cloak and pushing open the stone and wood door that shielded her room from the hallways. She walked down the decorative stone steps quietly, so as not to wake anyone or draw attention to her. Her mother didn't like it when she crept out at night, and the monks always made sure to put her back to bed whenever they say her up late at night. But tonight, she wanted to meet whoever was talking to her. Maybe it was a new friend to make.

Raven had no reason not to trust however was speaking to her. Why should she?

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was met with the figure of one of the monks. It was the face of a monk that she had never seen before, but then again, she didn't know all of them. Even the ones she did know she couldn't remember fully.

"Hello," Raven said, looking up into the face of the monk she didn't know. "Who are you?"

"I'm El(…)" said the monk. The monk had more than that to his name. He was more than just El; he had said a name far longer than that, but Raven could not remember it, even after he had said it. She only remembered the first syllable, El, and quickly forgot the rest. She didn't know that it was intentional that she forget.

"Come," he said, with a wide smile and a beckoning hand.

Young, trusting Raven did as the monk had bid her. He led her outside of the temple, and into the Azarathian streets. Raven looked up at the mystical stars in wonder, for in this dimension everything seemed to have a special magic to it. The stars were beautiful in an otherworldly fashion, and the air around her seemed to breathe on its own, as if pure bliss entered her lungs with every breath. Azarath was beautiful, perfect. It was her home. The only home she would ever want, ever know, ever need.

"Where are we going?" the young Raven asked as the monk started for the edge of land that floated within the inter-dimensional realm.

"I only want to show you what lies beyond," said the monk. His voice was warm and friendly. Raven reached up for his hand, wanting to hold it like she did with most of the adults she met, but he didn't reach down for hers. Didn't even acknowledge it.

Raven put it down sadly.

"Why are we here?" Raven asked, when they had finally reached the end of the meteor of land that was Azarath.

"Because I want to show you something," said the soft voice of the monk. He lifted his hand, and pointed down below. Raven followed the direction of his finger. She looked down, past the edge of land, and into the depths of mysticism and magic of the dimension of Azarath. There were so many things to see.

"I've seen all of these things before," Raven said to the monk.

"Really? All of these things?"

The way the monk had said 'all' made shivers go up and down Raven's spine. She didn't know why.

"Yeah. Azar told me all about them. She explained the inter-dimensional properties of this world, and all the neat stuff. Like that," Raven pointed. "And that. And that. And that." Raven had crunched down onto her knees at the edge of the land, pointing to each of the aspects within the depths of her world. "And Azar told me of the other dimensions, too! Like how Earth comes from the third dimension, and how Azarath is the twelfth dimension…"

"Have you been taught about the second dimension?" the monk asked her. Again, the chills in Raven's spine.

"No. My mother doesn't want her to teach me about that. Not yet."

"What a shame," said the monk.

A moment of silence drifted between them. Raven still stared down past her feet, past the floating land in Azarath, looking and watching for...something.

"What is the second dimension?" Raven asked at last, no longer able to hide her curiosity.

"Limbo."

"Limbo?" Raven repeated. It sounded new and strange and exciting. A new piece of information that she had uncovered; a thrill ran through her at the sound of this name. Partly for the name, but more for the fact that she was learning something Azar nor Arella had taught her. It was the simple secrets that children kept to amuse them, and it made Raven giddy.

"The second dimension is Limbo. And Limbo is truly a remarkable place. A place that you should know much more about," said the monk. He crouched down close to her, eyeing the child's wondrous gaze into the void. "Far much more about. But Azar will not teach you. She does not want you to know…nor does your mother. If you tell them about this, bad things might happen, young Raven."

"I don't want that to happen!" Raven whined.

"Then you probably shouldn't tell them about this," the monk told her.

Raven shivered again, the chills visibly running up her spine and around her body. She clutched her hands to her arms, squeezing herself to make her feel better. "I won't," she promised the strange monk.

"You know, one of these days, you could see Limbo for yourself." His voice turned darker, lower. It was deep, far too deep for someone as thin-chested as he.

"Will I like it?" Raven asked him. Doubts were starting to cloud her mind, and fear was blooming all around her. It felt like her blood was flashing both hot and cold in turns and spiders were creeping up her throat as she tried not to cry.

"You will love it," said the monk. "Now, go back to bed. Get some good sleep. You wouldn't want to worry anyone."

Raven nodded, and turned to head back into the temple that she called home. She took a few steps away from the edge and the void beyond it, and then stopped. Turning back to the stranger, she asked in a small, quiet voice, "Will I see you again?"

"Yes."

"Okay," she whispered, and went back to bed herself.

She found the temple easily enough, climbed the stairs both quickly and quietly, and snuck back into her sheets before anyone knew she was gone. All night, there was both a fear and excitement that lingered on her nerves. In time, it came to fade, as memories of that night became hazier and life went on as it always had.

She never mentioned the word Limbo to anyone. So she forgot it.

___________________________________________________________

"Raven," came Azar's voice, summoning her.

Raven spun and went to her, bowing her head down for a moment before looking up into Azar's bright violet eyes. A common greeting in Azarath. "Yes?" she asked in a calm, clear voice.

"Follow me," Azar told her, gesturing with her hand. Azar spun, her white robes twirling around her, and hurriedly walked down the halls and up the stairs. Raven sprinted to keep up with her. Even if her legs had been longer, she wouldn't have been able to keep pace with Azar's erratic pace.

Raven kept sprinting her legs out in front of her until her feet left the ground, and she was flying. Raven didn't notice at first, but once she did she focused more on it, no longer moving her feet underneath her. She flew behind Azar, her child's cloak flowing out behind her, and her demonic powers visible to any and all who saw her. Raven was expecting her to lead her to one of the windows or balconies or thresholds, like she normally did when she wanted to talk to her in a secluded place. But instead Azar was heading up the stairs into a different temple than the one they were in.

To the temple home that they both lived in.

Up the stairs and into Azar's very own living chambers.

Raven's feet dropped down onto the ground, and she looked around, mystified by the place as she always had been. Natural lighting filtered in through the windows, giving the room a warm and easy glow. It felt bright, cheery. But there was a cold that crept into Raven, for she could sense the emotions of Azar, seeping from her like perfume. For as young as she was, her empathic powers were already so strong, and she could sense Azar's words before she had even made up her mind to say them.

Raven swallowed, and went to sit on one of the nearby chairs.

Azar hesitated for nearly a minute. She closed and locked the door, making Raven's heart drop into her stomach. That was not a good sign. Azar fumbled with some of her books, straightening them on the shelves and aligning them on the tables. She dusted out her seeing bowl with her hand, inspecting the thin layer of gray upon her brown hand before she clapped the dust off of her.

"Raven," Azar finally said with a sigh.

"Yes?" she asked timidly. Her voice didn't waver, though.

"I've thought much about this. Arella has wished for me not to tell you, but I feel that I now must. I cannot hide the truth from you, and you deserve to know what I am about to tell you." She spun and looked Raven in the eyes. Shame went through the young child, and she dropped her eyes down to her bare feet. "I also know that you've snuck out at night, four times exactly, within this past year alone."

Raven felt more and more ashamed. Azar stepped closer to her, and put her hand upon Raven's shoulder, comforting her. The breath that she had been holding escaped her in a sigh of relief.

"You are not in trouble, Raven. Nor do I blame you. I understand. That is why you must listen to me. You are not an average child. Your blood… Your heritage… Your father is something that is e—that is not good. Raven, you were born of Arella, but you were also born of a demon named Trigon. He is not of Azarath, but he was partly made from the energy of Azarath. He is a source of darkness in the world, in all worlds."

Azar paused, watching to see how Raven took all this new information.

She didn't seem to fully understand, which Azar expected.

"There is a prophecy that you will fulfill, a destiny that is already laid out for you. Trigon has made sure of this. He will return to the world, for destruction and domination, and he needs you to do so." Azar paused once more. "You are a half-demon, Raven."

Raven nodded.

She was finally starting to understand.

"You were born for unspeakable things to happen. Trigon needs you to take over the worlds that he wishes to claim as his own. No, don't cry—" Azar said, wiping a tear away from Raven's cheek. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you need to know. You are the daughter of Trigon. You are prophesied to aid him in his conquest. Your body is a portal, and you are a relic—a gem. When you are old enough, sixteen years of age, you will release Trigon from his fiery prison in which he cannot escape on his own, not fully. In doing this…"

Azar trailed off.

Raven needed to know, but she could not say the words to her. How could she tell Raven that she would die upon committing such a great and terrible act? Simply put, she couldn't.

"Raven." Azar wiped away another tear from the young girl's cheek.

"I understand," Raven told her. And she did. She truly did; she understood fully what Azar was saying. That evil which resided in her veins, the haze of truth within the backs of her mind that whispered to her in her own inflections, a burden that she had never known about had weighed down on her since birth, and now she could finally place a specific name and story to it.

"Is there anything else?" Raven asked.

"I dare not teach it to you," Azar replied.

She wrapped her arms around Raven, pulling her into a hug, and Raven crushed herself up against Azar. It felt like that was the only piece of happiness that she had left in this time and place. The sunny room felt dark, the open air felt suffocating. The truth tasted bitter in her throat and hot in her eyes.

"That's why mother doesn't want to speak of my father, isn't it?" Raven asked after a long silence. She had only ever asked about her father once, to which Arella had replied that she wouldn't speak of him and told Raven to do the same.

"Yes. Trigon is not someone that you should speak of. Not lightly, anyway."

"Will mother hate me for knowing?" Raven asked, no longer able to hold back her tears. She was so little, and so frightened.

"No. Arella loves you more than she loves her own life." Azar released Raven from her hug, and cupped her face in her hands. She looked into Raven's eyes, watching the passage of emotions and thoughts that appeared. "How do you feel, now that you know the truth?"

"Sad," was all Raven could muster to say.

"You will need to meditate," Azar told her. She stood up, and unlocked her door. "Do you remember the words I taught you?" Azar asked in a soft voice.

Raven nodded.

She got into position, crossing her legs and putting her hands upon her knees. She closed her eyes and began to chant, her body leaving the ground and floating steadily in the air. She felt Azar pet her hair while she chanted, and then felt the presence of her leave the room. Only when she was alone did Raven allow her emotions to come free. Not only did she sob, but a great black energy was released from her being. It broke glass and cracked stone and ripped pages. It tore the very fabric of the air around her, and shattered all sound waves. Everything was mute and deaf in her pain, and Raven just couldn't stop.

As night fell, Raven's pain subsided, and she went back to her own bed, wanting to sleep all of this off. But Arella stood in the hallway, blocking the way into her room. Raven looked up at her mother with sad, sorry eyes.

"What did she tell you?" Arella asked her.

Raven only wept more, no words forming.

"Come. Sleep in my room tonight," Arella told her, and Raven did as she said.


	12. Chapter 12

Robin expected to come back to a city in ruins, not a city partially in ruins.

There was no trail of destruction to follow, like he had expected. But he could detect the hints, the clues all around the city. It all pointed to Slade, where he was. In his brain, it was like a radar, with Slade bright on the monitor. Robin grit his teeth and dug his hands into the handles of his motorcycle, willing it to go faster, but he was at top speed and couldn't will it any further than that.

Starfire was struggling to keep up with him. She could fly fast, and for a long time, but even he was starting to test her limits. The fresh air sped past them both, offering at least something decent for their lungs. But it didn't make their minds any clearer.

"Robin…" Starfire tried to say, but her voice was lost on the whipping wind. "ROBIN!" she tried yelling, but he still couldn't hear her. She couldn't even hear herself, the rush and roar in her ears far too loud. She would have sighed, if she had been able to, and directed her focus ahead.

Tears started forming in her green eyes as the wind hit them.

The wind had never been a problem when she had flown before, but like Starfire knew, she was reaching her limit. In the back of her mind, something dark crawled up, threatening to make her lose her grasp on her flight. It was a fear that spoke of her not being able to fight, not being able to win, not being worthy. A fear of her body and mind finally giving out and she laying crushed and tired on the ground, unable to do anything more than wait for her energy and strength to return. She could just imagine her arms shaking as she struggled to lift herself up, and the hang of her head when she realized just how weak she was.

Robin rounded the corner, and Starfire turned quickly.

At least her reflexes were good for the time being. She could still match the speed of Robin's bike, and keep the energy she needed to fly for so long. She had the agility to weave through the city expertly.

Familiar skyscrapers loomed ahead. Dark and foreboding, for the memories of their tragic histories were fresh in Starfire's mind. But in Robin's mind, it was like a wound, a slice straight down his chest and fresh blood pouring from him. The very essence of his life stained on those buildings, at least in his mind. The same buildings where they had fought Slade and luckily won.

Robin hated luck. It was unreliable, and it only reminded him how much he lacked in skill. It whispered to him, Had it not been for me, you would be dead, or worse, they would be dead.

He would have crashed his motorcycle into the oncoming concrete wall, had Starfire not been there.

"Robin!" she screamed, purely out of instinct. She reached down to grab him, slinging her arms around his waist, and pulled him from the bike and up into the air, flying high to avoid the blast of burned gasoline and flying shrapnel. The motorcycle crashed into the wall, exploding as it slammed into the concrete, the components all shooting up into the air like fireworks. The roar of the explosion didn't sound like it should have; it sounded hollow, far off. Like he was witnessing it from a long ways away.

"Are you alright?" Starfire asked him, clearly worried.

"I'm fine," he snapped back. He struggled in her arms, trying to free himself. "Let go!"

Reluctantly, Starfire let him down. Robin landed on his feet, then crumpled to the ground, shock and pain going all through his body, stinging the healing wound that he had. He clutched a hand to his chest, waiting until the pain had passed before he stood upright again.

His bike was completely totaled, and a small fire was burning on the rubble. It would die out soon, for it had no more fuel.

No one was hurt. No one was even around. So he continued on his feet.

"I do not believe you should continue this," Starfire said. Robin didn't listen, his ears still ringing and his skull too thick to listen to her. She put a hand on his shoulder, gripping it tight enough to bruise, and spun him around, forcing him to face her. "I do not believe you should continue this," she said once more.

"Why would you think that?" Robin snapped back.

"Because you are in bad condition. And Slade is someone who makes your condition worse." She paused. Robin's face was covered in anger. "All I am attempting to say is that I believe that you should not continue to search for him," she finished.

Robin said nothing for a long time. He pulled his arm free from her grasp, and walked on ahead. Using one of his grappling hooks, he shot the hook upwards towards the ledge of a tall building, and pulled his way up quickly.

Starfire followed.

"Please listen to what I am saying," Starfire said.

The line continued to pull him up, higher and higher until he reached the top of the building. He flung himself over the ledge, using an acrobatic move he had used so often in his past, and when his feet hit the concrete he shuddered. His body hunched over and his face loomed closer to the ground, but he steadied himself upwards. Starfire landed next to him, her feet landing so softly it made not a sound. A spark of envy ran through him, at her painless body and energy, but he tried to douse it.

"Robin!" Starfire's voice was more forceful now. When her hand caught his shoulder this time, it was not with affection or concern. The grip caused him to wince in pain, and she spun him around to face her. "Listen to me," she told him sternly.

"Okay," Robin said. He narrowed his eyes, since he didn't want the wide-eyed expression of shock written across his face. "I'm listening."

"Going after Raven is a matter that is well, but going after Slade is a different matter entirely. You should not go after Slade!" Starfire told him. She pointed her finger at him for emphasis. "I know how you are with him. I thought, I truly did believe so, that this would not become problematic at this point in time. I had hoped that Slade would be dead, but he is not. I had hoped that you were cured of your illness of focus caused by him, but clearly…"

"Star! Enough!" Robin said. He tried to release her grip on his shoulder, but he could not, so he only pulled her along with him. She had floated upwards while she had spoked to him, making her easy to pulled along. She let him do it. "Come on, let's go," he waved her on, spinning on his heel and walking to the next edge of the building. The view from the top of the building nearly swept the entire city, and Robin searched out the grid of his home until making move to jump down.

"No!" Starfire said, catching him just before he could leap.

"Star!"

"You must not go after him!" Starfire said. She pushed him back and stood in front of him, blocking his way out, and her hands were clasping his. "You are injured! Your mind is clouds! Please do not!"

"Star!" He gritted his teeth, and tried to move her away, throw her off of him, or just get free from her grasp. But he couldn't; she was far stronger, far quicker, and her decision had been made. She was not letting him go. Still, Robin struggled against her. Starfire pushed back, until Robin kneeled in front of her, balancing on one knee as the pain from the stress on his body started pounding through him. He never expected to be in a power struggle with Starfire, of all people.

But here they were.

"Starfire! Please!" he begged her.

"I cannot let you go," Starfire responded. There was a waver in her voice, and Robin heard it as clear a bell chime.

"Starfire," his voice softened, and his force lessening until there was no more struggle. Starfire's grip eased, and now she only stood over him, her hands locked in his, fingers intertwined. She looked down at him with wet eyes, her tears threatening to overspill and run down her face. "Please," he said to her, just as softly.

A shadow of a smile crept onto Starfire's face, as if she would believe him. "Robin," she whispered hopefully.

Robin's foot moved in a flash, and the next thing Starfire knew, Robin had kicked her legs out from under her, making her loose her balance. She tumbled down onto the ground. Starfire gasped, partly from shock, and she couldn't regain herself quickly. Once Robin had kicked her feet out from under her and knocked her to the ground, he muttered a quick apology and ran as quick as he could, darting up onto the heightened ledge of the building and jumping down so quickly he was nothing more than a blur.

"Robin!" Starfire cried out, her voice bordering on the edge of something sinister. Gritting her teeth into a feral snarl, she launched herself forward, immediately taking flight, and soaring down the way Robin had went. Her speed increased, along with her desperation and rage. Confusion was thick in her mind, but she was blinded with her own tears to see clearly.

Robin swung from his line before landing on his feet, his body crumpling as the pain raced through him. He stood. Starfire was on him at once. She crashed into the ground before him, the cement beneath her feet cracking.

"How dare you!" she told him.

"I need to go after Slade." There was something in Robin's eyes, beneath the mask, that she could see as plainly as day. Fear crept upon her as she realized she hardly knew him anymore. This was something in him that she had only seen once before, and it scared her beyond belief.

"What about Raven? What about me? What about the self of you?" Now, the tears did spill over her eyes.

"What about Cyborg? What about Beast Boy? What about the city?" Robin shot back at her.

In his mind, things were breaking down. What about, what about, what about? It all seemed so pointless suddenly, so frail and fragile and meaningless. That something within him was like a point of focus that was fading fast into the distance, a speck on the horizon of his mind that no longer existed.

Even Starfire noticed.

Her emotions, boiling and sizzling at her fingertips, making her tears glow green and her strength increase, seemed to pause as well. Something within her seemed to fade, and fade fast, just as Robin's drive had. She stood upright, looking into the distance with a blank expression, noticing only the stress vanishing from her body.

_____________________________________

Everyone seemed to notice this.

Something had happened.

Cyborg and Beast Boy both paused, energy draining from their bodies, and becoming still and quiet while looking off into the distance. Pain they could not feel. Cyborg was trapped underneath a fallen steel beam, trying to pull his legs free when the air and mood around them all suddenly changed.

Beast Boy, in mid-flight as a hawk, settled upon a wire, not able to do anything as the out-of-body experience shattered past the barriers of his mind and consumed him entirely. Slade stilled, though the evil look in his eye remained. His grip on the heavy metal staff loosened, and the tension he had built up in preparation to land another strike faded away until his arm hung limp at his side.

Members from the HIVE, out to do his bidding, all became motionless as this feeling struck them all. Even the citizens of Jump City became still, calm, and mildly mystified.

Something had happened.

Jump City seemed to enter a nightly state, where everything had stilled to the point of a trance. Farther away in Star City, the mood had changed there too, and a strange slowness embedded deep within all of them. The edges of Gotham evened suffered the same fate, the citizens slowing and becoming not themselves.

Something had happened.

And it was slowly spreading, like waves of discontent in the molecules in the air, floating softly as the wind stirred them. Like molten lava hardening, still creeping forward over black rocks as it stretched farther and farther away from the core.

_________________________________________________

The light was blinding, and the white endless.

In Raven's eyes, that was all that was there. Endlessness. Whiteness. Nothing.

It was if she were trapped in a blank canvas, and the world around her had been ripped away, burned as heathen art and leaving her without a place to turn back to. But that wasn't the case, she had to keep telling herself. She could sense the outside world, though it seemed to be fading somehow, thinning out within her mind.

The walls couldn't be that dense.

But all the same, Raven was fading inside of this place, just like the world around her was fading. She felt like she was becoming the same blank slate as the rest of the place that surrounded her, fading into a blandness that held nothing inside. She put her hand to her heart, feeling the steady beating there. Raven felt she had to remind herself that she was alive and her heart still beat within her chest. That she still breathed, and that she still existed. She still felt that same fading inside of her, and something dying, withering in her core, near her heart and soul. Her fingers clutched harder at her chest, her nails biting into the fabric.

The cloak around her warmed up even more as Raven fought against herself, struggling within her mind.

No, something shouted. But it was only in her mind.

Raven rubbed her gray hand over her heart, cradling her breast as she walked forward within this place. It was eerie, this whiteness, that now seemed to dim into a near gray. As she walked, longer down what she assumed was the hallway, the bright white faded into something normal at least. Like white painted walls and ceilings and floors. But still, she had that unease about her. Something that crept up along her spine in a snaking fashion, fingers that teased her bundles nerves, shooting anxiety throughout her body.

Her footsteps echoed, no matter how quiet she tried to make them. She didn't fly, or levitate, for it felt better for her to walk. Like the half human she was, she walked. Ella, the small and now quiet cat near her feet, was just as skittish as she was. The hairs along her back stood up, and her tail was puffed out. Ella looked up at Raven's face, then back around the room, and repeated her movements.

No, something in Raven's mind said again.

And then it hit her, exploding within her mind like a bright light of truth against the darkness of lies. It filled her mind, and panic nearly consumed her, but she stayed rooted to the spot.

An asylum.

The one Starfire had described all that time ago, when she had stumbled into the future. Raven's eyes widened, fear mixed with indigo, as she thought that this was now her fate. That her mind had finally left her, and she was left insane, forgetful of her friends and her past, alone in nothing but white.

Raven? It is I, your friend.

No such thing.

She took a step back, then another one, as if that could somehow distance herself from this moment.

But that couldn't be it. It just couldn't. Her fate had changed, just as the fate of the world had changed. The world was to end in fire and chaos, brimstone and smoke, statues of what was once alive now being pecked at by the demonic, insatiable birds that ate everything they could get their razor fangs onto. So she was not supposed to spend the rest of her life within a white room, lost forever inside of herself, insane and unable to know what was happening.

Looking down at her cloak, she took solace in the fact that it was a deep, dark black instead of a crisp, blank white.

"Ella," Raven said, finding it hard to speak past the rock in her throat. "Tell me this isn't real. That this isn't happening."

Ella let out a small, timid meow. Raven didn't know what that meant. For as much as she knew, she should have at least known what that was signaling, but she didn't. She was too lost in thought and fear.

Perhaps I am already fading, Raven thought.

"This isn't real," Raven said to herself again. Speaking it aloud did nothing to help though, for she still saw the blank white all around her. The nothingness, Ella, her own body. Nothing more, nothing less. She looked back the way she had come, and saw only an endless stretch towards the exit. If the exit was still there.

Maybe this was all a game, and she had walked into a trap just as naïvely as she could have. Oblivious and now caught in a white cage with only walls and no windows, and a small little cat from her past. And a new cloak from Azarath, made by Azar herself.

Again she heard the clacking in her ears, the sparks of magic that flitted in front of her eyes and consumed her soul and touched upon her skin and sank into her heart. She could feel the air again, as if she were in Azar's study, watching her at her loom, the sound clacking on and on.

Raven saw it as if it were materializing in front of her eyes. Azar in the center of the room, the windows just beyond Azar, and her loom drenched with the colors of twilight. A feeling in the air stronger than any heat or chill, more penetrating than any smell or touch of the hand. Stone flooring beneath her feet, just as the temples and walls of Azarath were built, and a study lined with books from every country on Earth, every language ever written in any time or place or dimension. Objects from far and wide, stretched across the fabric of time and space and reality, sitting on those shelves that surrounded her.And Azar, her robes pulled up around her until she was comfortable, her hood down, her indigo eyes intent on the work in front of her. She looked stern but happy. And there was little Ella, the sweet black cat with the green eyes, laying on a bundle of already woven and hemmed fabric that Azar had made so long ago.

When Raven tried to let the fantasy fade away, she realized she couldn't.

It had changed before her. The scenery, the room, the walls expanding and the sky changing. So now, she actually did stand before Azar, in the room that was her study, watching as she weaved cloth. Where the white walls had gone, she did not care. Maybe it was her black cloak, or maybe it was just herself, but she had made the scene change before her. She now stood watching Azar, and her calm returned to her. Raven said nothing for the longest time, but as the clacking sound calmed her, and Ella's soft, slow blinks became a visual tranquility, she grew bold and approached Azar. As boldly as if she had never left.

"Azar?" Raven said in a quiet voice, stepping forward to her second mother.

Azar made no response, only continued as she was.

"Azar?" Raven said, louder this time so that she would hear her. Still nothing. Azar remained undisturbed. Raven took more steps forward, until she stood before the woman, only a foot from her, looking down at her as Azar refused to acknowledge her.

"Azar!" Raven said again, nearly screaming the word. Reaching forward, she tried to put a hand upon Azar's shoulder, but it only faded through her.

Azar was not real.

Raven pulled her hand back as if she had been burned, clutching at it. She pressed the hand to her chest, feeling the steady beating of her heart, the rise and fall of her breast as she breathed. She was still real, still here. But Azar was not. She had only been conjured within Raven's mind and then projected onto the world around her, like some mystical virtual reality. Raven sighed a tired and hopeless sigh. The clacking rang in her ears, the hues of twilight still touched lightly upon her body. Ella, the real Ella, still sat by her side as she sunk down to her knees.

Something was happening. Raven just didn't know what. At least this birthday, there was a mystery instead of a struggle. A confusion instead of certainty.

"Perhaps a broken prophecy means a broken girl in return," Raven thought aloud.

The gem felt like doing nothing more than weeping, but she would not weep. Would not shed a single tear, for she knew she was strong. She would get past this. Maybe she shouldn't have left her friends; they were her strength and comfort. They were there for her, pulling her from the ruins and ashes when she would have let herself fall without a moment of hesitation, without a thought of remorse.

But she couldn't let them be dragged into this yet again. She was dangerous, and they had been through enough danger.

Broken girl.

Raven crossed her legs, but did not float up into the air. She didn't chant her spell words, for she didn't feel like meditating. She knew that in this time and place, it wouldn't help; she didn't know how she knew that, but it just spoke to her like a ninth sense. Raven remained on the floor, cross-legged, her arms stretched out before her and her head downcast.

"I am broken," Raven whispered.

Again, there was the same rock in her throat that made it difficult to speak. Or swallow. Or breathe. But she forced through it, for she would not let anything damage her even further.

"I did not know I would have to face this," Raven said. She was speaking more to herself than Ella, although it helped to have Ella there. She kept some part of Raven's sanity, her happiness, and when she mewled and curled up onto Raven's lap, Raven felt soothed. If only just a little bit. "I knew the prophecy was a big part of my life, but I had hoped it wasn't my whole life. I defeated the prophecy, but does that mean I've ruined myself in the process?" She looked down at Ella. "With the prophecy, I would be dead in some form or another, or be stripped of so much of my life. And now, without it, I'm just…like this…"

You will get better, said a voice within Raven's head, buried deep within her and now clawing its way to the light. You will get better. This is not the end. You're just having a bad day.

More like a bad week.

Or a bad life.

Raven, you need to stop this. Pick yourself up, walk with me. I know I should not have spoken so harshly to you, and I am truly sorry, but please do not do this to yourself. Azar's voice. Long ago from a memory. I realize how you must be feeling, but please do not do this to yourself. Realize that you are loved by many people, all the people of Azarath, and that you will forever have a home here.

Then, something that Raven had been needing to here her whole life, again and again. You are not a monster. You are more than just a portal. But Azar's voice seemed so thin and frail in her mind. You are not a monster, you're more than just a portal, you can control your own fate, Azar had told her, shortly before Raven had fled from Azarath, attempting to escape Trigon's influence.

"I don't believe you."

Raven stayed in her bent position for the longest of times, trying to find some type of peace. Peace from her thoughts, or peace from anything. She wanted darkness, a deep slumber. She wanted deep black to consume her and take her away from all of this and leave her in the peacefulness of the night and the security of dreams. Where she could not hurt anyone, and she could not hurt herself.

That is what Robin fears.

When Raven opened her eyes and looked up and around her, she was met with stark white, surrounding her on all sides.

Ella jumped up off of her lap; she knew what was coming next.

"No," Raven said, in a deflated tone. "No!"

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

"NO!" she screamed, rising up from the floor and into the air.

Her cloak and hair flew out all around her as she rose, flying into a rage. Her teeth grew to sharpened fangs, her nails became stronger and more claw-like, her eyes were flooded with a bright red as blood rushed over surface and inner emotion lit them from within. Raven brought her fist up, powerful dark magic roaring all around her palm, and she smashed it down into the floor beneath her, making the vast whiteness crumble and fall away. A deafening roar filled her ears, vibrated the air all around her, screamed at her until it felt like the noise had marked her soul with its relentless voice.

What have I done? Raven thought in the back of her mind.

She saw the ground crumbling away from her and a deep, dark pit opening up beneath her levitating feet.

Ella gave a terrified meow and jumped up into Raven's arms, bundling herself into her cloak to try to escape this all.

Raven felt herself being pulled down, farther down into the void that she had created. She closed her eyes, now back to their normal purple irises, and clutched tightly to Ella as regret flooded her.

Her long, black cloak tugged hard at Raven's body, trying to get her away from this. Heat blazed, stronger and sharper than any hellfire, within the cloak as it desperately tried to save her, to pull her away from the depths of Limbo.


	13. Chapter 13

Panic rose in her chest, but she could do nothing to stop it. There was only a bolt of fear that leapt straight into her veins and up her spine and clawed at her heart. She clutched protectively at the cat as she felt the heat rising around her, and felt her feet give out from under her. Nothing was touching her feet, but Raven could still feel those invisible claws with their grip like iron wrapped around her ankles and pulling her down.

She felt like she was drowning, except within fire instead of water. In darkness and depression instead of liquid. Raven held her breath, closed her eyes, forced herself to think of something else, of anything else.

With one final flap of her cloak, her feet hit the sooty ground and the portal above her closed up for good, trapping her within the literal hell. For the longest of times, Raven did nothing. Only stayed hunched down, bundled up within her cloak, as if trying to hide herself with a blanket. The cat stayed in her arms, face tucked away into the crook of her elbow, just as terrified as she. Tears threatened at the back of her eyes, and it created a burning feeling that only made her eyes water more.

Two thousand exhales later, Raven opened her eyes and uncurled her body.

The heat enveloped her, embraced her. The scalding temperature of hellfire seemed to breathe life into her body, remind her that this was her heritage, her birthright, her destiny. And then, as quickly as the scalding heat had touched her, it vanished. Only to be replaced by a chill. A cold that wasn't normal.

It wasn't the type of cold that made you shiver and wished for more clothes, but a cold that you felt within your bones, in your blood, no matter how hot or cold you might be; no matter what the temperature on the thermometer read. Something that came from inside you, a frozen aspect that had worked its way through you and made your skin feel almost numb.

This was not Limbo, Raven realized then; Limbo was scalding hot and filled with fire and magma; Limbo was a hellish dimension. This place, wherever this place was, was something else. Some place else. Another dimension, one that looked like Limbo, smelled like smoke and brimstone, had the same effects on her...but it wasn't.

The more Raven observed, the more apparent it became. Not only was this place cold, but it sounded hollow. There was a howling, faint and slight, like wind echoing through a cave. But it was only the silence bouncing off of the rocks and through the cold fires to create a hush. Far different from the harsh crackling and snapping and roaring of the fires of Limbo. Far different from the evil presence that seemed to bounce off the barriers and echo through the air, creating a sound uniquely its own. Because evidently, evil had a sound.

She still held the cat in her arms, as she was too scared to jump down.

When Raven stuck out her hand to touch one of the sooty rocks, it was cold to the touch. Not icy, not chilled, but cold. An empty cold. Pulling her hand away made her even more confused, for it wasn't stained. She had expected it to be covered in black soot, but there wasn't a trace of anything on it.

Raven heaved a heavy sigh. She felt a drag in her bones that seemed to pull her down to the ground, as if gravity was increasing on her though she knew it wasn't. She felt tired, incredibly tired. Not the kind of tired that sleep would cure. It was a kind of tired that said that she was done dealing with this life. Of having to go through something demonic and nerve-wracking like this year after year, something so taxing on her both mentally and physically. Something that she was tired of having to fight. It felt like it took far too much energy for her blood to even be bothered to flow.

The cat gave a soft mewl, and jumped down out of her arms. Ella seemed to have a distaste for the feeling of the ground against her paws, because she kept flicking her feet, making aggravated meows, and stepping every which way in a futile attempt to get her feet onto a safer, less creepy ground. All was in vain.

What was she expecting? Raven thought.

Raven stood there for a long time, trying to weigh her options. What was there to do? Open up the portal once more? She hated to admit it, but she didn't know how. Even if she did have the ingredients, such as salt and candles and her spell book to help her remember the words, she knew that it wouldn't work in this realm. The way the dimensions were warped and curved and curled around each other, this realm would require a different technique, and one that she didn't know.

She thought back to when she had confronted her father in Limbo, years ago when she was only thirteen years old, and what she had done to enter the dimension. But it just wouldn't come to her mind.

Deciding nothing else, Raven started walked. She went to the right and didn't stop to look back. What was there besides rock and brimstone and eerie quietness and even eerier cold? Nothing, really. Nothing Raven could sense, anyway. If there was someone or something else here, she would have picked up on it, felt it coming. Or leaving. Or sitting around.

But there was nothing.

So she only walked, on and on along the forsaken path, where there wasn't a soul to see. Only stone in the vastness of this place. There was no ceiling, so the world above her opened up, dark and empty. Things echoed off of it, like the ceiling of an opera house, and there were no stars in the thick black above her head. If it was hollow or if it was domed, she didn't know. And with the way she was feeling, she didn't care to fly up to check.

Who knows, she thought. I could be flying forever and ever up there, only to become lost in that world. Lost in the darkness, wandering forever.

Shivers ran up and down her spine once more.

She kept walking. Her footsteps were quiet, but they still managed to create ripples of sound through the still air, jarring her senses back to life. If it were not for the pattern of her feet stepping or the pattern of her breath leaving and entering her body, the quiet might have driven her mad. She focused on that, finding it as soothing as rain up against a window pane. The quiet would have driven her mad, if not for the sounds she made. And madness was not something she wanted. She despised it, had worked so hard to conquer it, to keep her mind in balance. She would not lose herself in this world, her mind turned to chaos simply because it was so quiet she could have heard the blood flowing in her veins. 

Ella eventually started to calm as well. She had jumped back into Raven's arms, hugging her body close to hers with her claws in Raven's leotard. As time when on, though, her grip lessened and Raven heard her purring change from a tone of panic to a tone of peace. Could sense it, too.

Is this some kind of labyrinth? Raven thought after a while.

How many twists, how many turns, had she gone through? Thinking back, all that came to mind was the fact that it was a lot of turns and twists and wandering footsteps with no specific number. If there was a minotaur at the end of this maze, Raven would be all too happy to see it. It would be another life form, aside from small Ella in her arms, and she knew that she could easily defeat it. Could release all her power and rage and stress upon the beast, and cast out her negative feelings once and for all. Could make the minotaur suffer the same way she had, if that was what truly met her at the end of this place.

Her birthday was close. So close. By the turn of another moon, she would be seventeen, and her powers would peak. She knew they would, for they always seemed to when her birthday rolled around. Even with the cursed prophecy fulfilled and then decimated, it would still happen. As luck would have it, she knew it would. She could feel it in her body, rolling in her muscles, breathing life into her lungs, sharpening in her eyes. She was stronger, more powerful in her dark arts. Far too strong for a minotaur or any beast to stand a chance against her.

Raven wished for the library suddenly. Wished that she were still tucked away in that windowsill, with the soft rain and the even softer lightning. With the warm glow of the lights, stayed on past the normal hours, and the thousands upon thousands of books all lining the shelves. If only she could go back there.

But she couldn't…she'd been lured out by Ella.

A sudden spike of resentment rose up in her for the cat, of the soft being she cradled in her arms. She though of tossing her down to the floor and making her walk across the rocks of this world by herself, but Ella's purring soothed her, and she did no such thing. Only held her tighter.

Ella hadn't meant to do this, or so Raven thought. She hadn't meant to cause her more stress, lure her down to this world, and force her into reliving the past. The way her eyes were as big as moons, with the pupils nearly filling the entirety—she was just as scared as Raven felt. It showed on her face. She heaved a sigh and brushed her hand up against Ella's head, petting her, which only made Ella purr more.

Raven looked away, uncaring and indifferent.

Ella's head bobbed up then, as she focused on something far, far away. Something Raven couldn't see or sense. Ella tensed up, her head craned around and her body pushed away from Raven's so that she could see as far and wide. She writhed, trying to break free of Raven's arms, and Raven set her back down on the ground. The stone touched her paws, and Ella shrieked. But fate would have it, she bounded off, running away.

"Ella!" Raven said, suddenly worried. She couldn't let her become lost within this world. "Ella!" Raven said again, taking to the air and flying after her. Ella was running, desperately trying to get away from her. Or close to something.

Raven landed back on her feet when Ella slowed back to a walk. She didn't scoop down to pick her up, but followed her.

"I feel like I'm in a bad Lewis Caroll novel," Raven mumbled, thinking aloud. "More following a cat towards who-knows-what."

If only I'd stayed in that damn library! she thought, tears starting to sting her eyes.

But you didn't, said a secondary, hidden voice within her head. No sense dwelling on the past. What's done is done. Move on, for you cannot go back.

Like I have a choice, responded the primary voice in her head.

She rounded corner after corner. Raven's eyes slid shut, as she walked on and on, and then floated on and on. Ella was still making her follow like a puppet, like a balloon on a string.

No…Ella wasn't making her do anything. Raven was following her of her own free will, just like a fool. But she let herself continue to be lead, despite how stupid and ridiculous and non-sensical this all was. 

When the appearance of someone else within this realm struck her eyes, Raven was taken aback. Shouldn't she have sensed them? Shouldn't she have sensed their presence, coming forward and jutting up against her spirit like a blunt dagger? Apparently not, since that had been what had happened. Upon closer inspection, Raven realized they weren't technically completely here. They were like a specter-they were a specter. Their body was semi-transparent, and their feet did not rest upon the ground. Raven got closer, following Ella as she continued to run towards the being who Raven guessed was dead.

The figure turned as Ella let out a joyful meow. Raven stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening to the size of moons and her jaw falling open.

"No! Azar?!"

Azar.

That's who it had to be. But this only brought up more questions than answers. It would make sense for Azar to be dead—after all, the last memory Raven had of her was of her dying. Her body had been spliced between three different dimensions, and nothing left of her had remained in Azarath. Raven had never seen her again, although she would admit, she had fled to Earth before she'd even had a chance at possibly seeing her again.

"Azar?" Raven shouted again as she flew towards the woman.

"Raven…"

Azar's voice…didn't sound like a voice. It sounded like wind. It sounded like a voice in her head, something that was played from a far away speaker. Something that echoed off cave walls with no point of direction. It was not her voice, not even close. It lingered on in the air between them, and neither of them broke the silence.

Ella jumped up into Azar's arms.

Raven said nothing of it, but it only added to her confusion. If this was a specter…or a ghost or some being like that…then how could she pick up Ella? Was Ella not a living being? Raven had held her in her arms, pet her, carried her. She felt as real and warm and breathing as anything else on Earth. So the answer to that had to be no. There was an answer to this riddle, but there was no answer coming to her mind.

"Raven…" said Azar once more. "You have come."

"Were you expecting me?" Raven asked, somehow able to find her voice.

Azar nodded, just once, and then turned back around, letting Raven face her back. She was staring off into the distance, and Raven walked up behind her, following her line of sight. She saw nothing. But who was to say Azar was looking at anything?

"Azar…talk to me…what's happening…?" Raven whispered.

"To begin with…as you may have guessed, I am not alive." Azar's eyes seemed so sad then. Her hand stilled on Ella's back, and her ghostly form slumped forward as the weight of her burden pressed down upon her.

"Thought so," Raven said, looking down at the ground. She closed her eyes to block it all out. "So does that mean I'm dead?"

"No," Azar quickly replied. But she didn't offer any more explanation, which was something that Raven needed. Needed as badly as she needed the blood within her veins.

"Go on…" she prompted.

"Well, I supposed partly…" Azar mused. She began to pet Ella again, and the sorrow that had deepened her eyes only seconds ago dissipated into a coy stare. "It is a long explanation that I have been trying to figure out. Do you know that it is hard to move here? A single second seems like an hour, and it seems like your body is made of lead." A heavy sigh escaped from her.

"But I'm not dead…?" Raven asked, the question burning in her throat.

"No."

Then what the hell am I doing here? she wanted to scream.

"You need to know something," Azar continued, and then sat down, cross-legged, Ella purring away on her lap. Raven sat down in front of her, mimicking her. It reminded her of long ago, back when Azar had first taught her mediation as a way to control her emotions, and thus her powers.

"What do I need to know?"

The deep sadness returned to her eyes, as endless as the void above their heads. Azar began to speak.


	14. Chapter 14

When the portal had closed, the stillness had gone. Still by still, frame by frame, speeding up in a gradual instant. The strange peace still lingered in the blood of the masses, but when it raced through the chambers of their hearts and went through their bodies again, it faded with every beat. Things were returning to normal, slowly but surely, as the time rolled forever onward. A gradual return to the way things had been before.

Slade's fist tightened on the metal staff as he regained himself, knuckles turning white beneath the glove, his single eye hardening as he looked at the small green Titan struggling under the pile of rubble that crushed him to the floor.

Beast Boy didn't seem to register Slade's return to bloodlust, for the pain that had once been eased from his body was returning to him, torturing him, weighing him down. The stomp of heavy metal boots against the floor made him turn his head, looking over to see Slade was approaching. Fear rose in his chest, accompanied by panic, and he struggled even more to push the metal beam off of him. But no matter how hard he struggled, no matter what animal he tried to change into, it anchored him down and would not let him be free.

He was a sitting duck as Slade drew nearer.

In the back of Beast Boy's mind, he could hear the ominous music playing. Like all the movies he'd watched, all the video games he played, he knew that death was drawing nearer to him. Ultimate pain, and an enemy who had him trapped and pinned. That ominous, devastating music came roaring into his ears just as Slade brought the metal staff down.

He closed his eyes, and waited for the blow.

But it never came.

Cyborg's angry yell cut through the music, and Beast Boy opened his eyes again to see Slade being thrown backwards with Cyborg's sonic blast. Relief flooded through him, and he went back to trying to remove himself from the steel prison that devastated his body. He looked up at Cyborg for help, but received none. If he wanted out, he was on his own.

Cyborg charged at Slade, fists balled and a sonic canon at his ready. A battle cry was torn from his throat as he went to punch him, and struck him straight in the face. The metal on metal clanged painfully, and Beast Boy winced as the sound invaded his ears. Slade staggered back, reeling from punch, and Cyborg charged after him, fists swinging in the air. Slade dodged them expertly, moving as quick as a flash of lightning. Cyborg kept yelling, pounding his fists into the walls and into open air.

Beast Boy watched them for a time before he went back to struggling with the metal beams. There was a sharp, shooting pain deep in the core of his bones that was turning into a dull ache as it traveled along his muscles. He was almost positive that he had broken a bone, somewhere in his leg. Each transformation into the next animal was painful, and his leg was still twisted beneath the steel. He grunted right before his transformation into a pterodactyl. Green wings spreading wide, he tried to take to the air, but his leg still remained pinned.

Screeching loudly, all his pain reverberated off the walls, filling the air with a sound so shrill that anyone who heard was forced to cover their ears.

Cyborg, who was used to hearing Beast Boy's shrill animal screams, recovered quicker than Slade, and landed another punch on him before the masked man could recover. Straight into his chest, direct into the solar plexus. Slade stumbled back, clutching the now bruised area. Looking up, he saw Cyborg advancing, and like a streak of lightning he moved out of his way before he could land another blow.

Beast Boy was running out of animals. Mammoth? He'd tried, and while he had lifted the steel beam off of the floor, it was so heavy upon his back that he could hardly move, especially with his leg the way it was. He couldn't walk forward to get the beam off of him, and couldn't stand up on his hind legs…because again, that damn broken leg.

Tyrannosaurus rex? That might be the next best option. The dinosaur route always seemed to suit him well in desperate situations. One last morph, and his body transformed again, green skin growing scaly and powerful legs thickening. The way the body was arched, in a continuous diagonal stance, the metal beam started rolling down him. It almost landed on his tail, but he would not be trapped again.

Into a hummingbird, small and fast. He flew away from the debris, finally freed, and found a safe spot near the corners in the shadows where he could rest his wings. Back into a human, he surveyed the damaged leg.

Definitely broken, he concluded. That sickening angle.

"Fuck," he hissed as he tried to move it. He sucked in breath and tried to set it back, aligning his ankle up with the rest of his body. It throbbed painfully, and tears welled in his eyes as he tried to wiggle his toes. He couldn't. "Fuck," he hissed again.

Another scream tore across the space, but this time one of pain instead of anger. Slade had dealt his own blow to Cyborg, a hard uppercut to the chin, and now he was unbalanced, gripping his jaw to make the waves of unbearable pain stop. Slade came at him again, as silent as a shadow, aiming another hard punch at his gut. Cyborg doubled over, which gave Slade a chance to pound his arms on the back of Cyborg's head, and bring his knee up to drive even more pain into him.

"Cyborg!" Beast Boy screamed out, not even thinking.

Slade turned his eye towards him, broken and hiding in the shadows.

I should not have done that, he realized. But he couldn't take it back now. He glanced at Cyborg, who had fallen to his knees on the ground. Blood at the corner of his mouth and his hand pressed up against his body. His breath was ragged, and a grimace was on his face. Even if he could still stand and fight, it wouldn't be his best. Slade would easily overtake him again.

"Robin, where are you?" Beast Boy whispered, thinking aloud.

Slade turned away from Cyborg, and started his way.

No! his mind screamed. No! No! No!

With his one good leg, he pushed himself back farther against the wall, pressing his body up against the hard, unforgiving surface. But he could only push so far back. He thought of shrinking himself down, but a horrified image of Slade's heavy boot stomping on him and crushing him came into his mind. Still, he knew he had to get away.

Robin! Starfire! Where are you?!

Cyborg let loose a groan, stirring the uncomfortable air around them all. Slade stopped in his tracks, looking back at him with malice deep in his eye. He snarled behind the mask, and his grip tightened on the weapon in his hand. Still, he waited and watched while Cyborg made his way back to his feet again. He was no threat, Slade knew, so what use was there fighting him the second he got up?

It was not like time was on their side.

Slade allowed himself some amusement as he watched Cyborg struggle to his feet, and then have to grip the wall for support as he wavered. His muscles, both mechanical and organic, were spent and shaking. Cyborg assumed a few of them might have been torn. Even muscles deep down and shielded by his machinery were pained; that was something he didn't believe was possible. Until now.

The image of Slade wavered before him. His red robot eye was broken and cracked, and now he could only see Slade through his one good eye. And even then the vision was blurry.

An eye for an eye, Cyborg thought cynically.

In the blur of his sight, he saw Slade strike him again, on the exposed muscle where his skin was bare, and felt the sting of penetration into his muscle. He clasped a robotic hand over the inflicted area, and fell back against the wall again. He grit his teeth and pulled his hand away to reveal a pinprick dripping blood on him. Panic rose in him as he realized Slade had injected something into his body. In his bloodstream, flowing towards his heart this very moment. But there was nothing he could do.

Cyborg was becoming tired, and his eyes drooped closed.

He fell hard upon the ground, not even a grunt to signify that he had felt it. Beast Boy watched as Cyborg fell into what he assumed was either a deep sleep or—more likely—a coma. He hoped that it was the former and not the latter. He couldn't be dead, for he still breathed. Beast Boy took small comfort in that. Had Slade killed Cyborg, there would have been hell to pay, and Beast Boy wouldn't have let any number of broken bones stop him. But Slade hadn't, so his adrenaline stayed locked inside of him. 

Beast Boy's life suddenly flashed before him, seeing himself in a future without Cyborg. It was horrible and heartbreaking. He edged out of the shadows, wanting to run over to Cyborg, pick him up in his arms and get him far away from this place. He wanted to put his arms around him and squeeze him, to shout into his ear until he grouched about the sound.

What have you done? Beast Boy thought as Slade approached him.

Slade's boots thudded like thunder as he slowly walked towards Beast Boy. Beast Boy held his breath, not knowing what to do. But he knew what to expect; a beating so bad that he would wish he were dead, and then probably being stuck with whatever Slade had given Cyborg. Without thinking, he transformed into a hummingbird again, trying to fly away from the danger. He felt bad about leaving Cyborg, but he needed to get safe first. Get safe, get Robin and Starfire and…okay, only get Starfire and Robin, and then get back here with backup and kick Slade's ass. Good plan, he thought.

But it never happened.

Beast Boy wasn't surprised.

Even while small and quick, Slade was able to strike him, throwing the staff and knocking him unconscious to the ground. When his body struck the hard ground beneath him, he shifted back into his human form. Broken leg and all. The last thing Beast Boy could see was Slade walking towards him. A sharp sting to his arm. Nothing more.

Starfire's face swam back into focus as Robin remembered who he was and where he was. The blood that had felt soft and soothing before now began to heat with anger, and his heart rate increased as the chills of sudden calm receded. Starfire's memory was clarified along with his, her past emotions coming back to her. Blood so soft and calm now becoming enraged in time with his. The lingering peace lasted now only on their tongues. The spoke to each other, unable to say a harsh word as they fought against another's strength.

"Starfire, please," Robin said to her. "I need to go back…help my friends…our friends. Slade—"

"I do not care for nor about Slade," Starfire replied to him. "I care about you, Robin, and the health of you. I wish not for you to be so badly injured…and at this period in time, you very well might!"

"Starfire, I promise you—"

He never got to finish, for an explosion behind Starfire sent them both flying. They both screamed as they were launched into the air, the heat of the fire searing their skin and concrete flying at them pounded against their bodies, bruising Robin. Starfire landed on top of Robin, and she shielded his body with her own. The heat continued to lick at her bare back for a moment longer, then dissipated into the air. With a sigh of relief, Starfire looked up, searching around them.

"You missed—you big idiot!" she heard a far off voice say.

Both she and Robin turned their attention towards the sky, and saw two forms on top of a skyscraper, clearly arguing. Another hand grenade fell through the air, and Starfire picked Robin up off the ground and flew away with him, away from the weapon heading towards them. Fast as she tried, the explosion still hurt them, the intense heat searing into their skin again, despite their best efforts to escape it.

At least she could fly.

"We are under attack," she said to Robin.

"Yeah, I noticed…" Robin replied.

Another attack was about to be sprung on them, but Starfire saw it before the grenade could be thrown into the air. She sent a bright green star bolt flying out towards the small weapon, and it exploded high in the air before it could even be triggered. The two on top of the roof fled quickly, not wanting to be caught in the explosion.

"Robin, we must leave here!" Starfire told him. He was struggling to his feet, so Starfire grabbed his arms and pulled him up. Robin grunted with the strain, the tug of his muscles, but he concealed it well.

"We can't just leave!" Robin said back to her, his teeth clenched together and his voice low. "They're after us. And it's clear they don't mind destroying the city to get to us." He turned his head upwards, looking at the two still standing opposite of them, high on the building and a long ways away.

No more hand grenades were thrown.

Robin surmised two options: either they had run out of grenades, or they had one left that they were saving for the most opportune chance. Depending on exactly who those shadowy HIVE figures were, it could be either option. But he wasn't close enough to see, so it was truly anyone's guess.

"Starfire," he said, and Star's head whipped around. "Can you see who is at the top of that building?" He pointed up at the two in the distance, making their way closer to them in a blur of color.

"I cannot," Starfire said sadly. "I can get you closer, though!" she said after a pause, and grabbed Robin. She slung her arm around his side, and took off from the ground. They both flew up, higher and higher, the rush of the wind roaring in their ears and whipping across their skin.

The rooftop rushed past them, and into the open air the two of them flew, exposed to their enemies. Looking down, Robin saw the two assailants, staring up at them. Kyd Wykkd and Mammoth. One last hand grenade was on Kyd's belt, and Robin knew they had been saving it. What better time to launch it than now? But neither of them took it out, pulled the safety tab, and threw it towards them.

With a feral yell, Mammoth jumped high into the air, making for Starfire, his fingers spread as he reached for her. Starfire flew quickly to the side, and left Mammoth shouting into the air and then falling, down, down, into the alleyway beneath them. A valley between the mountains of skyscrapers. There were no fire escapes or ladders to stop his fall, for him to grab onto, so he just fell, downward from the great height they were at, until he landed on the broken pavement below him. There was a crash of cement and rubble, and a deep rumble as his until body quaked with pain.

Robin dropped down onto the roof, bird-a-rangs at the ready, and threw them towards the masked Kyd Wykkd. Unsurprisingly, he disappeared before the bird-a-rangs even left left Robin's hands, disappearing on the spot like a shadow disappears when the sun comes out. He materialized behind Robin, but Robin felt it. Spinning, his foot launched into the air, and he would have landed a harsh blow to Kyd Wykkd had he not constantly been disappearing and reappearing on various locations around the roof top. Robin followed him all about, like a cat chasing a clever mouse. His breath became even more ragged and sweat beaded along his forehead and he ached between his ribs. He would not stop, and his obsession became just landing a single punch or kick to the black-clad villain.

Starfire, in the meanwhile, was taking down the remainders. The two, other than Mammoth and Kyd Wykkd, who had followed them. It was Gizmo, as annoying as ever with his robotic spider legs around him, and a woman whom she didn't recognize. She had angel wings sprouted on her back, and a silver helmet that covered her head. Starfire couldn't see a strand of her hair, and her eyes were pale white without irises or pupils in them.

Gizmo was easily taken out. All she had to do was blast a plethora of starbolts at his robotics, and they were fried before they could even touch her. The mechanical spider legs around him crumpled up and broke apart, wires exposed and metal charred and warped on the ground. He was no threat without his weapons.

Starfire didn't have mercy in her, not tonight. She knew this was becoming serious. Far too serious for her to exercise restraint to the point where she was afraid to injure or even cripple her opponents. If Gizmo couldn't walk because of embedded metal cutting into his leg, so be it.

It was dark, with the stars shining above them, and the moon glowing brightly in the sky, a thin little sliver in the vast openness of the sky. If it was midnight, then it meant that the day had come. It was upon them all at that very moment-if it was now. "Happy birthday, Raven," Starfire whispered to herself, despite not knowing whether or not it truly was her birthday. If it was already tomorrow, with all the time they had lost in their strange hypnotized peace, then she wanted to say those words, even if they were to herself.

The angel woman's powers were great. As she flew, her wings grew in size, and her speed was incomprehensible. She was faster than Starfire could keep track of; a streak of vague white across her plane of vision. She kept spinning, around and around, until Starfire was only firing her starbolts blindly. She was hard to strike, though Starfire kept trying. The night was alight with glowing, green fireworks, sizzling in the cooling air without direction.

Starfire cried out as the woman circled around her fast, striking her between the shoulder blades and sending her sprawling to the rooftop ground. She hit the rooftop hard, the material beneath her caving in, all cracks and broken off chunks littered with dust.

Snarls came from her throat, and her eyes sent off the next starbolts.

She hit the angel figure, and the woman started to fall.

Right on top of the roof with her. Her wings shrunk back to normal size as she lay in the cavern she'd created when she struck the surface. Her eyes were closed, and moans and groans of pain escaped her as she tried to twitch her limbs. Starfire advanced upon her, fists radiating green energy and her eyes alight with fury. Her fist struck out in front of her body, zapping the angel.

She didn't scream, but instead growled. The woman's eyes slid open, a blank white staring back at her, as she beheld the alien in front of her. Every pore of Starfire's body glowed with anger and determination. There was no mercy in her eyes, no regret in her mind.

Angel wasted no time. Did not even stop to consider; she launched forward, her superhuman speed knocking straight into Starfire's core and sending her flying. Angel's wings grew in size again, until they became white giants behind her, a spectacle far grander than they had been ever before. They curled, flapping in the air to make her fly, and she beat her wings against Starfire, battering her body.

Scalding burns patterned her wings as she struck the alien, but eventually they grew less and less, and then stopped altogether. Her wings came together again, clapping closed, and crushing Starfire in between them. With that, Starfire had lost consciousness, the pain too great for her to bear and her body fatigued beyond flight. She plummeted down out of the sky, and Angel watched as her body crushed into the building, another crater sinking in beneath her as she landed. A small little moan escaped Starfire, and then all was quiet.

Angel landed.

Walking towards the alien, she made to lean down and gather Starfire up in her arms, so that she could deliver her to Slade. Starfire's eyes peeled back in defiance, and she struck the green straight into Angel's face, before closing them again and allowing herself to slip back away into darkness.

Angel's screams filled the night air, cascading through the near silence. Her eyes were burned, and when she removed her hands, she saw that she was blind. The skin around her face was scarred and singed, and pain rippled through her mercilessly. She would have attacked the alien then, if she could have seen her. To kick her and stab her and make her pay for what she had done.

"Starfire!" Robin screamed, upon seeing what had happened.

Ignoring the fight with Kyd Wykkd, he started running in the direction of his fallen teammate. But the shadow appeared before him, materializing, and punching him directly in the face. Robin fell back, flat onto his back. Robin had only a second to process what had happened. He raised his legs and kicked them towards the shadowy figure, but Kyd only staggered back little before landing another blow to him. He was on him then, his body cloaking over Robin's, throwing punch after punch after punch. Robin blocked them all, and struck back. But in the end, it was Kyd Wykkd who prevailed. All it took was a uppercut to the jaw, and he was out of it.

"Are they dead?!" Gizmo shouted angrily.

"No," Angel said. "But that is because they must be delivered alive. Slade wants them alive, and so we shall keep them alive."

Gizmo made a coughing noise that let them all know exactly what he thought of that.

Angel stumbled, blind as a bat, carrying Starfire. She had been handcuffed, both her feet and hands, and a blindfold tied securely over her eyes. Kyd approached with his own victim, dropping Robin straight onto the ground, uncaring of how hard they hit.

"What about the big lug in the street?" Gizmo asked. He tried moving towards the ledge, but his legs were broken beneath him.

"Not important," Angel replied.

Kyd Wykkd produced a small device from within his cloak, turned it on, and then handed it to Angel. She stumbled around for his hand, unseeing, and Kyd had to grip her wrist as he pressed the device into her palm. If she could have seen, she would have seen the cold, haunting mask of Slade staring back at her, his one eye deadly with malice and hatred.

"Robin and Starfire have been taken down," she said.

"Good," Slade replied, in a steely voice. "Four Titans down, one to go…"


	15. Chapter 15

"This is going to be a complicated answer," Azar told her.

"I have time."

Azar gave her a small, almost pathetic smile. "Yes, you do," she said, and her voice wavered as emotions once torn from her body came back to her. She'd been dead for so long, she'd forgotten what the breath of life felt like, what tears tasted like. It was wonderful, even the worst of distress. "You are partially dead," Azar said at last.

"Mmm," Raven moaned. She looked unimpressed. Like she'd been told this before. Truthfully, she'd felt half dead for the past few years of her life. Hearing it wasn't that much of a shock.

"I am not being poetic," Azar said, "You are literally partially dead."

"Which part?" Raven asked her, finally starting to understand.

"I…I am not sure," came her hesitant answer.

Raven eyes became like knives, piercing into her wavering form. Even Ella couldn't stand to look at her much longer. A shimmer of red started to coat over her eyes as rage and frustration kindled in her, and Azar placed her hand upon her head. At her touch, the cloak breathed into life. It was cooling, like fresh air to parched lungs, and Raven felt herself immediately calmed. Her red, demonic eyes shrunk deep back within herself, and all the aches and pains and tears vanished from her body. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she breathed a sigh of contentment as the relief washed over her.

"Better," Azar said. She knew Raven had healed somewhat. "When you died…the first time…during the Ascension, I am not sure which part of you died. I know that something within you was killed, and that you were left as a child. But which part, I do not know. It was either your human side, or your demon side, and I don't know which. It is just…" Her voice failed her.

Raven's demon and human sides rivaled each other within her. And yet, they collided together, interconnecting so finely it was hard to distinguish between the two. Raven just wasn't something that could be split so cleanly; it had warped within her, so that her human being was demonic, and her demonic being was human.

"A part of you is dead. And I have seen it somewhere, here, passing me by some time ago. I knew I had to call for you, for you can't go on living missing this part of you. That is part of the reason you are cursed."

Raven buried her head in her arms.

"Raven, listen to me. With you in your current state, missing an essential part of you, you are going through an illness. You cannot live half-dead, so your being is becoming withered." Azar didn't phrase her words right, but it was the closest she could get. "You need to retrieve it. You can do that, if you are partially alive. You need to get it, and absorb it, and then return to your home."

Whichever home that is, Azar thought to herself.

"Part of the reason I'm cursed?" Raven repeated.

Another long sigh escaped Azar. "Raven, you have cursed yourself. The traumatic memories you are playing out in your head, the way you are reliving the emotional trauma from before, the panic you are experiencing and the melancholy that keeps clutching at your heart…you have cursed yourself within even knowing it."

Raven said nothing. What could she say?

"Do not feel bad," Azar said to her, though her words were all too hollow. In both meaning and sound.

Raven took a deep breath. "Where do I go?" she asked, all too calmly. Not even her disappointment showed in her eyes when Azar fidgeted around the question. She didn't know, that much was obvious. But still, Raven waited patiently for her words.

"I don't know," she admitted.

Raven had to bite back the feeling of hopelessness she felt rising within her. She refused to be broken. She couldn't give up now, not when Azar had a solution dangling right in front of her. If she could just reach forward, and grasp it in her hand, and have her world become easier, she would do anything. Wait for a thousand years if she had to. A thousand years for one year of happiness she would gladly exchange.

"But, I think…"

Something hopeful rose within Raven.

"…I think, that I first beheld your partial spirit in the midst of a sea."

"A sea?" Raven asked her.

Azar nodded. "That's the best way I can describe it. A sea…of some kind… The exact words escape me…"

The silence that then stretched between them was only filled with the sounds of Ella's purring. It was what kept them both comforted, in the eerie silence of the lifeless world. Azar stroked Ella's head, and Ella closed her eyes and leaned up against her hand as she made soft little strokes over her head and around her ears.

"Where do I find it?" Raven asked, her voice cutting through the silence.

"I can't remember…"

Of course you don't, Raven thought, her agitation building. I just want this day to be over. Why can't it all just be over?

Azar noticed Raven's jaw clench as she was bombarded with the darker side of her emotions. She scratched behind Ella's ear, making the cat let out a loud purr. Raven looked up at the fuzzy little creature in Azar's arms, and a thought came to her suddenly.

"Is Ella dead?" she asked. Raven held her breath as she waited for the answer.

"Yes and no." Pause. "Ella is a strange, mystical cat. As you might recall from your childhood, Ella was always something mysterious to you. She can walk between worlds, between dimensions. Her soul is of Azarath, and her limitations are few. She is powerful and omnipotent by choice. That's why I have her."

Raven thought back to all those times Ella had set her green eyes on her, and how they always seemed to fill her with a sense of wonder and terror at the same time. Not dead nor alive. It explained a little bit more, Raven thought. One mystery solved. One that she didn't even know that she had, nor did she want.

"So where is this 'sea?'" Raven asked Azar.

"Direction escapes me…"

Azar's response grated on Raven's nerves. She loved Azar, and she had learned so much patience and kind-heartedness from her, but this was nearing the border of her control. Already she was wondering what would happen if she just let herself snap. But no matter what scenario she pictured, she knew it wouldn't end well. Wouldn't help her out of this nightmare, but instead pull her in deeper.

"Azar," Raven said, her voice not showing any hint of malice, "I assure you, I will do whatever it takes to make me right again. There isn't anything I won't do to make me whole."

Azar thought on Raven's words while she scratched Ella's head. She knew that Raven was competent; she knew more than anyone else, save maybe Raven herself. So Azar didn't doubt that Raven would do whatever it took, but she did doubt herself to lead her correctly. One of her greatest fears had come to life, when she had been killed. She wouldn't lead, couldn't lead. But if it were a choice between death and leading her people wrong… Well, the choice she had made was clear.

"I honestly cannot say," Azar mumbled.

The cat purred on and on.

Black magic started to crackle at Raven's fingertips. It seeped from her veins, bleeding from her skin as she fought to get it under control. Raven closed her eyes, discreetly trying to meditate. Focus her energy into a solid, palpable, controllable essence that wouldn't consume her. It slowly started to work, and the crackling dark powers that threatened to hurt them all retreated back inside of her. Raven let herself hum in her state of mind for a little bit longer, making sure that that dark thing inside of her was secure before opening her eyes.

Azar was watching her with a steady gaze. Even Ella had opened her eyes simply to observe her. Raven blushed as she saw them both watching her so intently, and she reached behind her to pull up her hood, casting her face in shadows. It made her feel a little better, and as the cloak started to radiate its healing energy, Raven felt her blush vanish and her sudden anxiety fade away.

"I believe she might be able to help you," Azar said.

Raven blinked once, twice, before understanding what Azar was saying. She looked down to Ella, still sitting in her lap. Her green eyes shone in the dull world around her, and she squinted as her. It made her look wise, and Raven again thought she was in some Lewis Carroll novel. But of that, she said nothing of it.

"Ella can lead me…?" Raven asked, the disbelief in her obvious.

"She could do it better than I could," Azar replied.

Ella yawned and stretched before jumping off of Azar. She looked up at Raven expectantly, sitting down with her tail curled around her body and her green eyes practically glowing.

"What about you?" Raven asked.

"Ella will come back to me when you find yourself," Azar calmly said.

"That's not what I meant," Raven told her. "I mean, what about you yourself? What about Azarath? You said you're trying to escape from here, but how?"

"I will get out of here eventually," Azar said, but she doubted herself, and she knew that Raven knew this. "Eventually. I can not be here forever, there is too much life in me. Death has always treated me special…" Azar put a hand to her head. Her brown skin had almost faded completely gray, and Raven thought that she could resemble herself. "Until then, Aaliyah is watching over Azarath. Arella is doing good…she is safe and healthy. Happy." Her fingers started to massage her temples.

Raven stood up, sensing that she should soon depart. Ella still sat waiting.

"Raven," Azar said, with a small smile on her face. "Know this: should Aaliyah no longer accept the leadership of Azarath, I give the realm to you."

Raven was too numb to feel excitement. If she was still a child, she would have jumped with joy and praised her and smiled until her cheeks hurt. But she was not a child; she was a traumatized young woman trying to repair herself, and she just couldn't bring herself to be happy.

"Thank you," Raven said to her. "That means a lot."

"Go," Azar told her, her voice a shallow whisper that echoed in the space between them. "You need to go."

Raven nodded, and turned away from her. After the first few steps, she couldn't help but turn around to look at Azar one last time. But when she did, she only saw empty space where she had been. Azar was gone, and Raven knew she wouldn't find her again.

She looked down at Ella. "You can find her again, can't you?" she asked the cat. Ella gave a small little mewl in reply.

Raven sighed, and walked on.

Ella sped ahead of her, leading the way to whatever "sea" Azar had said that part of her soul resided near. She mostly walked, making her feet hit the ground in order to hear something other than the deafening silence that reverberated off the caverns and hollows. Ella barely purred, if at all, so Raven was left providing the sound herself.

The maze of this world seemed to stretch on and on forever, with no real sense of direction. She just followed Ella, hoping that this would all make sense in the end, and that she would lead her to where she needed to go. It did seem to be working, somehow, for Raven slowly started to feel the air around her changing.

Ella picked up her pace, and Raven took to the air.

Just beyond her, Raven saw the "sea" that Azar had been talking about. Only it was not a sea; it was a portal. It was a hole in the world, deep and dark and endless, seeming to emit waves of energy throughout the air. Raven flew higher into the air, trying to see how large the portal was. It stretched for what seemed like miles, but Raven could see the end of it. It was like a black hole, creeping at the edges of the rocks and borders, but only she didn't feel drawn to it. She wanted to move away from it, if anything. Looking down below her, she saw Ella look up at her, blink her bright green eyes, and then turn back around, no doubt heading back towards Azar.

She was left alone with the portal that Azar said she'd seen a part of her near.

Steeling herself for the worst, Raven advanced towards it.


	16. Chapter 16

Raven hesitantly approached.

The energy that the portal was putting out seemed to fill her with…life. It energized her, made her senses sharper, make her have mild rushes of adrenaline that pulsed through her body. It felt good, and a small smile came to Raven's face. She breathed out a sigh as it rushed through her, and she floated even closer.

As Raven approached, the senses of life and energy grew stronger…and then died away completely.

Raven stopped dead in her tracks, her body feeling cold and numb, and a vague feeling of fear rushing all through her veins and along her nerves. She floated completely still in the air, not sure what to do. She squeezed her eyes closed and tried to focus on something else…anything else.

But the only thing that came to mind was a torrent of all unsettling things.

The fact that she was completely alone now, with no one to help her. The fact that she had broken a prophecy that was never supposed to have been broken. The unknown consequences that just had to come with breaking a prophecy, and how steep the price would be. The fact that she was trapped in some unknown dimension without any idea of how to escape. The fact that she was half-dead and blindly searching for the missing part of herself that would be her undoing if she never regained it. The fact that all this was out of her control, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It all spun and collided in her head, and feelings of fear and regret and impending doom started creeping into her.

She took deep breaths, trying to steady herself.

I'm fine. I'm going to be fine.

Raven had to keep telling herself that, lest she fall into a downward spiral and never come back up.

She could just see it now—another horrifying thought to add: her losing her ability to fly and falling down, down, down into the deep, dark portal below her, and becoming lost in whatever dimension it lead into. Raven felt that she had to back up, get away from the portal lest it pull her down into it, but she still felt that she couldn't move. She just levitated there, trying to calm herself down and think logically.

"Demon!" she heard something croak. It was so faint she thought she had imagined it, but it came again in a hoarse whisper. "Demon! Demon! A threat! A threat!"

Raven opened her eyes and looked around, searching for the source of the voice. Peering below her feet and down into the opening of the void, she surmised that the sound was coming from there. Morbid curiosity got the best of her, and before she realized it, she was floating downwards, trying to get closer to the sound of the voice.

Despite her curiosity, the words stung her.

"Demon!" it rasped. "Demon! Demon! A threat! A threat!"

That seemed to be the only thing that it could say.

A hand shot out from the portal, and Raven cried out in surprise. Summoning her dark magic, she tried to make herself fly away, but it was too late. A ghostly shadow of a hand gripped her ankle in its fist. Raven struggled all she could, shooting her black magic at it, but all it did was make the voice rasp in pain. It still held tight to her. Deathly pale and withered, the hand had a surprising amount of strength to it.

Raven shot more beams of her mystic magic at it, zapping it mercilessly, before its claws finally released her. She shot upwards, distancing herself as much as she could.

The hand withered and lowered back into darkness.

"I told you she was dangerous, Arella," Raven heard the voice whisper.

Tears seared her eyes.

Looking back, she saw nothing, but it clicked in her head. Juris. So he still existed, in some strange way. He hadn't been obliterated…but apparently condemned here forever, trapped in darkness without any chance for release.

So my father does have mercy, Raven thought bitterly.

A cold wind softly blew across Raven's form, strands of her violet locks caught in the breeze. Slowly, Raven peered up through her lashes, catching sight of a red cloak fluttering nearby. Like everything in this dimension, it was vague. But she recognized herself anywhere.

"That must be her," she whispered, her voice cutting the drone of silence.

Four red eyes glaring at her confirmed this.

Her hands shook and her mind raced. Does this mean that I'm all human? Raven wondered to herself. Have I been human this entire time?

Steeling herself against whatever answer her mind might have come up with, she drew up what little courage she had and approached the missing part of herself. It didn't move as she came nearer, and Raven thought that a good sign. Maybe this would be easy. Maybe she could just reabsorb that demon part of her—that she apparently needed to live—and she could leave this place for good.

But, as always, nothing was ever that simple.

A sharp jab of hostility stabbed into her ribs and cut into her heart, and the edges of the red cloak fluttered before dark energy seized around her body. Raven didn't even cry out; she was beyond such pain. Doubling over as another shot of dark energy struck her in her solar plexus, Raven looked up at the demon her. Red cloak, red eyes; just as Raven thought she would look like.

Another flash of red and Raven felt her skin being clawed at before she was picked up and flung across the void of the portal, straight into the rocks on the other side. Pain rippled along her spine, but she ignored it. Summoning what healing powers she could, she flew away from the broken stones and charged.

Black magic bled from her palms, and the other Raven did the same. In the center of the portal, the two forces clashed together, spraying negative energy all around, most of it being sucked into the void beneath them both. Raven maintained the beams of magic for as long as she could, but her focus soon snapped as another rush of something cold stole through her blood.

That moment of hesitation cost her, for just as she rubbed at her ribs, demon Raven slammed into her once more, sending her backwards. The same rocks that she had crashed into before finally gave way, crumpling to the ground in bits of gravel and dust. She moaned in pain before forcing it away. Healing powers or not, she didn't have the luxury of an undamaged body just then.

With a snarl, she kicked her feet up and smacked the other Raven straight in the face with her foot, making her grunt. Raven picked herself up from the rubble and gave the red-cloaked form hit after hit, using every little bit of strength that she had in her paired with all that Robin had taught her. It seemed to be effective, for the figure was stumbling backwards, using her arms to shield herself from Raven's wrath.

As she fought, their feet stumbled closer to the edge of the void.

Other Raven tripped before she could go too far, and pulled her cloak over her face and body, afraid of what Raven was going to do next. Raven didn't do anything but put her fists at her side and lower her foot. When the other Raven felt no blow, she lowered her cloak, and Raven saw two fearful purple eyes staring at her.

The cloak shifted blue.

Wait…! Raven thought.

Looking down at her own self, she saw long claws had grown from her fingers, a red cloak draping her body, and when she lifted her hands to her eyes, she felt the second set had opened up. Running her tongue along her teeth, she could feel they had sharpened too. She shrunk back away from the now-normal-Raven laying defeated on the ground.

And then they switched back yet again.

Raven chided herself for not reabsorbing her when she'd had the chance. Now the other Raven was digging her nails into her skin, hands wrapped around her neck and constricting as dark energy bled form her hands and seeped into Raven's skin. She gasped, fighting for air. Anger and desperation flared up inside of her, and she ruthlessly aimed a blow at other Raven's chest. It would have struck her heart, had the anatomy of her dead-spirit-self been so simple.

Tendrils of her dark powers sprung from Raven's finger tips, seeking out the other Raven and pushing themselves into her chest, digging like ghosts for the heart that she knew should have been there. She wanted to see if it really was there; to see if she was organic or just a specter like everything else.

The other Raven curled up into a fetal position as Raven's long, dark fingers laced their way through her body. Her fingers seemed to stroke her skin, her ribs, her lungs. Then brush sensitively against her heart, before wrapping protectively around it, trying to protect it almost. The ghost of Raven's touch made her own ghost-self tremble and cower.

Cloak fading into gray, the spirit lowered down. Raven had done it again; summoned her red demon-self as she unknowingly tortured her own half. Azar had been right; it was not that simple, to say that she was half-demon and half-human. Even without taking back the dead part of her, she was both demon and human right then and there. She couldn't escape it. Whatever part of her Trigon had killed, and whatever part of her had survived, they hadn't been cut cleanly.

The gray morphed back into red.

A hand on Raven's throat, claws cutting into her skin and drawing blood, her body being tossed and slammed into the rocks all around the portal once more. Raven dodged each blow, but this time she was paranoid about retaliating. If she did, she might change into a demon herself. A torturer, a villain. So she dodged, ducked, stayed away from red Raven's blows and claws and teeth that dangerously snapped too close to her neck.

She spun just as a fist crumbled dark stone that her head had lain on just a second earlier. Red Raven spun, launching her powers at her and Raven flew away from them, seeking shelter behind a great stone pillar that shielded her from the worst of it. Her head throbbed, and her back ached, and for a moment she was at a loss for what to do.

She just couldn't let this other Raven pound her.

But then what? Hope that she got tired? Not likely, therefore not an option.

The rock behind her shattered into a million pieces, sending her flying forward and pounding her up against more stone. Raven sunk down onto her knees, her hands fumbling for some substance. In front of her, the rock she had been beaten against was cracked. Turning, she shielded herself with her dark powers right before ten sharp claws could sink into her.

Red Raven was relentless, clawing at the dark shield with her nails and then with daggers of dark black magic.

When that didn't work, a force so powerful struck against Raven that both her and her shield were sent flying backwards, destroying two more rock pillars in the process. Raven struggled to her feet, but still didn't attack her. She wouldn't attack, no matter what. But she was getting her ass handed to her, and she needed to think of a plan fast. Before she was beat so bad that she was knocked out…and wouldn't wake up.

Her shield failed her when her hands started shaking too hard.

Her eyes found the other Raven, about to advance. Four red eyes glared at her coldly. Judging by the twitch of her muscles, Raven knew the final blow was about to be landed. She fidgeted nervously with the edges of her cloak, and that was when she felt the fabric warming around her. A sly but pained grin came to her face.

Unclasping the cloak, she pulled the fabric free from her body.

Red Raven charged at her, eyes streaming red and her body bleeding with dark, evil magic. Raven stayed put until the last minute, jumping out of her way while pulling the black cloak up and capturing her in it. Her body tangled and she let go of what could have been a scream. Raven saw her hands beating at the cloak around her, but she turned and tangled herself more. Her struggles only secured the cloak around her more.

Raven held her down until her kicks and struggles and screams stopped.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

Sinking down onto her knees, she let her healing magic flow out of her core and consume her entire body with a faint blue light. Resting her hands on the fallen other Raven's form until it became…palpable beneath her fingers. Opening her tired eyes, she saw a transparency beneath her fingers. The pale thighs of her other self were still there, but they were fading fast. Raven watched until the very last trace of her died away, faded into complete clarity.

The black cloak still seemed to have life in it. Raven put her hand on the bunch in the cloak, feeling something shift beneath her hand, something breathe, and then nothing. Pulling the cloak off the ground, it felt heavier somehow. Clasping it around her shoulders to heal herself faster, Raven felt her lungs fill with what felt like water. But it was not painful. It was peaceful. It was release.

Vacant arms snaked around her form and embraced her, and Raven knew she had regained the missing part of herself. Once she was fully healed, the only thing left for her to accomplish was how to get out of here.

And then, after that…she just didn't know.


	17. Chapter 17

Her hand was at her throat, testing it.

She was healthy again. Whole again. Raven tilted her head back and breathed a sigh of relief. Her breath formed white in the air before vanishing completely. She was alive again. Her blue magic dulled and then bled back into her pale skin as the healing spell was complete. Still, she remained on her knees, eyes closed, listening to nothing but the hum of silence.

If she had water, she would have poured it all over herself. To cleanse or purify herself in some shape or form; old traditions of Azarath still lived on in her mind. She pressed her cold hands to her face, cooling her burning cheeks, and pretending like that was water. She needed it to wash away the negativity that clung to her body, but she couldn't. Could only make do with what she had.

Peace, calm, tranquility, Raven kept thinking to herself. She chanted her spell words, knowing that would automatically calm her. Breathe deep. Don't think; feel.

Cross-legged, she floated up into the air to center herself again. She needed to be balanced and logical if she was to escape this world. She chanted, feeling the hum in her throat as she spoke. Her words fought off the silence that threatened to smother her, so she kept chanting, letting the sound of her voice drone in her ears.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…."

Raven's legs uncrossed, and her bare feet touched the floor.

When did I lose my shoes? Raven wondered in the back of her head. Maybe when that guy was pulling me down?

She didn't think about it long. She turned her head back to face the void above her head, instead of the one at her feet. Something told her to try for that, instead of anything else she might have tried.

She couldn't teleport, and she didn't have the necessary ingredients to make an inter-dimensional pathway. So she tried up.

Raven flew, her feet leaving the stone beneath her and her body being lifted up into the air. She stared straight ahead of her as she flew. The black was deep and dark and omnipotent. Unease was pulsing through her veins as she attempted to navigate the empty black world. Her breath came faster the higher up she got. The black was starting to seep into her eyes, almost as if she was becoming blind from the darkness.

Bright spots flickered at the edge of her sight, but when she turned her head she saw nothing. Just her mind playing tricks on her yet again. Focusing her eyes on the nothing in front of her, Raven continued flying, soaring towards the unknown. Her body felt chilled and numb at the same time. She continued on.

The black pressed around her, as if it were touching her. She could feel the air becoming thinner.

Maybe she had made a mistake?

Raven didn't let the thought form. She knew that such a through would corrupt her focus, and poison her mind. She didn't let those things happen. She was calm, in control. She was whole again, and she had her birthday under control. That was what she kept telling herself, repeating the words mentally until she was forced to believe them. This birthday might not have been a wonderful one, but Raven had to force herself to believe that it would be fine.

Trigon's not coming back, she thought to herself. Trigon's not coming back. He's never coming back, not in forever. I imprisoned him. I destroyed him, separated him. He was torn apart and his form was sentenced to an eternity where he could never harm anything or anyone. He can't touch me, or Azar, or my friends. He's gone, he's gone.

The black opened up in front of Raven. She put her hands up to shield herself from whatever was coming. Bright blue that nearly blinded her, blossoming around her and eating away at the black like water eroding metal. Raven grit her teeth, still forcing herself forward. The chill was gone, replaced entirely by numbness.

When the numbness pass, she was filled with vibrations. Every molecule in her body seemed to be tingling, vibrating with a certain feeling of euphoria and humming with life. Energy. Raven thought that maybe this was it. That she had finally broken through and gone back to Earth. Maybe she was in the sky, high up above the ground, where the thin air struggled to fill her lungs and her blood was striving for oxygen.

But when Raven finally overcame the blue, she was again sent into darkness.

Beneath her body, she felt something soft. Moist.

Raven lay on her back. The darkness was her own eyes, closed. She struggled to open them, and when she did she found herself in the same forest she had been hiding out in. Beneath her was soft soil, still damp from the rain. The trickle of rainwater was struggling to hit the ground, thanks to the thick canopy of green leaves above her. But some of the spray did land on her, pattering her leotard.

Leaning up, she felt energized all over again.

It only made her groan. Her body had been played with far too much for one day. Let alone two or three days, or however long this had been going on. First fatigue then horror then life then sadness then nothing only to repeat the pattern all over again. It felt horrible, and Raven wanted nothing more than her center back.

But at least I'm whole again, Raven reminded herself. Perhaps that'll help when I meditate.

The forest floor beneath her feet was mossy and slick, and when she put her hands down on the ground and extended her empathic powers, she could feel it teeming with life. It all thrummed, like the drum of the earth, a heart that soothed her own. Raven tried to push herself to her feet before deciding to levitate herself to her feet. Her bare toes sunk into the fertile soil, and she focused her mind to zero in on that.

I'm whole again, Raven said to herself. Does that mean I'm safe to go back to the Tower? Rejoin my friends?

She didn't know the answer. She was torn between the library and Jump City and the woods she was currently in. They all looked like fine options from her perspective, but she ruled out both the library and the woods, and decided to head back to the Tower. She'd tell everyone that she had been fine in Azarath, but she had come home early. That she wasn't paranoid anymore…no, maybe she'd leave that one out. She didn't know if it was the truth, and even if it was, that would mean having to admit to herself that her own fear had cursed her.

She put her hands to her chest. Using her magic, she pulled the edges of the cloak up over her shoulders and closed it in front of her. The cloak was warm, and it shielded Raven from what little rain was falling on her. Raven could still hear the thunder, just as soft as a marble rolling across a hard wood floor.

The lightning…well, she couldn't see it.

Although, she guessed, it was still probably as soft as a nightlight.

The air was fresh in her lungs, giving her a sense of peace combined with nostalgia. She belonged here, on Earth. And it was the earthy scent that brought her down, grounded her, reminded her of the green life and the water, instead of lava and red skies and stone. She deserved this; not a life away from here, being tortured for the part she had played in Trigon's evil conquests. For the longest of times, Raven had believed that the only thing she deserved was an eternity where Juris currently was, forced to face her crimes and pay for them in blood and pain.

Now, as Raven stood barefoot in the forest with the rain falling around her, she realized that she had no crimes to answer for. She stopped crimes, didn't commit them. She was good, not evil.

The warm cloak around her shoulders seemed to glow as Raven came to this new knowledge. The other piece of herself that she had collected brought her back to what she once though, the way she had once been. No, better. She lived without a burden on her shoulders now. She lived in a world that would not end.

Opening her eyes, the woods around her seemed to beckon with its promises of comfort and truth. Like all she had to do was meditate in front of a tree and all her problems would be solved.

This is what being whole feels like, Raven realized.

She had lived for one full year without actually being whole. More than a year, maybe; ever since the days following up to Slade burning the red scars into her body. She had felt like she had lost something then… It was just her detaching herself from a crucial part of her self and soul, preparing to lose them, as she knew she inevitably would.

It feels nice, Raven thought. She smiled. The first smile she ever had on her birthday.

Raven's body flooded with adrenaline when the last thought ran through her mind. Her birthday. It was now officially her birthday. She could feel it in the rain, the air, the trees, the ground beneath her feet. In her blood and her bones and her brain. It had past midnight, and the eventful week leading up to this one point in time was now past.

October first. Raven was now seventeen years old.

_________________________________________________________________

Kyd Wykkd stood on top of the tower roof for as long as he could without boredom threatening to make him lose sense of purpose. He kept on scanning, searching for something—anything—that might lead them to solve the mystery of the final Titan's location. So far, Kyd Wykkd saw nothing. He was ready to give up.

Taking a last look towards the high-rises in the distance, he pulled his black cape around him and teleported down to the ground, where Angel was waiting on him, and Gizmo and Mammoth were already starting to crawl back.

"You have found nothing?" Angel asked them, though she already knew the answer.

"Nothin'!" Gizmo shouted, crossing his arms. "Searched all over town for that crummy Titan; robbed a few banks, vandalized a few cars….nothin'!"

Angel turned to Mammoth and then to Kyd Wykkd. She knew by their voices alone (or lack of) that their sentiments were similar. Mammoth had most likely wrecked a few cars, buildings, and roads. Kyd Wykkd purposely tripping alarms to make the elusive Titan show up. Neither of them had successful results.

Angel sighed.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Mammoth asked.

"Simple," Angel said, blindly turning towards Kyd Wykkd. She reached into his belt and pulled out a box of matches, holding it up for them all to see. "Just like bees in a hive, we'll smoke her out."

Angel stretched out her wings, taking to the sky with the matchbox still in hand. Blindly, she flew above the buildings, careful not to run into anything. Her body was already damaged enough. Not only were her eyes not working, but she had many considerable bruises from her fight with Starfire and the Boy Wonder. She didn't care for anymore of them.

Using touch to guide her, Angel struck a match on the side of the box, and tossed it down onto what she knew was a carpeted building. The window was open, and there were plenty of stacks of paper to serve as fuel for the budding fire. Angel waited until she heard distinct crackling sounds, and felt the heat of a large fire, before she stretched her wings and flew off again. She repeated this all over town, setting fires to office buildings at first, then public buildings and commercial joints, and then going so far as to light up the houses of Jump City civilians.

When the matchbox was emptied of at least thirty matches, Angel concluded her work. Using the device to call the other three, she landed a little ways away from the burning city near the edge of the forest, where everyone else was waiting for her.

"Done," she said.

She couldn't sense any of their reactions.

It was quiet for a long time, but then the city slowly started to come alive with the sound of roaring fire engines all around them, screams and cries from citizens, and the howling of dogs. Even from their far away place near the edge of the woods, the snapping and popping and crackling of the large fires started to reach their ears. It sounded deafening, like the sky was breaking apart and the very wind as screaming with distress, and everyone in the world was wailing as the world around them burned.

Angel smiled at herself, though her consciousness wasn't exactly clean. There was an ember of remorse somewhere in her, for setting so many fires, but she knew it was necessary.

"If this doesn't bring the Titan out of hiding, nothing will," she told the rest of them.

Kyd Wykkd was silent as always, but for the first time Gizmo remained silent as well. Mammoth seemed to radiate a series of emotions, each of them noticeable even to the blind Angel and the almost-oblivious Gizmo.

"That's a lot of fire," Mammoth said at last. His voice was unusually deep, like he had reached low into the depths of himself to find his voice.

"No shit, you big oaf," Gizmo snapped, but even his voice seemed to carry a lilt of unease.

Angel couldn't see it, but she could imagine it well enough. The rain wouldn't be able to drench it all away, the cloudy sky would be turning red and orange, and the skyline of the city would waver and crackle with tongues of the fire, blazing heat upon anyone who got too close to it. Soon, maybe even they would have felt the heat, if they had stayed there long enough. They had to go off again, searching for Raven.

She had to be somewhere, they all knew. It wasn't like a Titan to simply ignore people in danger. Even last time they had set the fire, all the Titans had come running to the scene of the disaster, and that was only one apartment complex.

Angel thought that they should have struck then. In hindsight, it seemed like a better idea. But Slade and his vapid, vague, stupid orders.

"Anything?" she asked the rest.

Kyd Wykkd texted that he had found nothing, and Mammoth and Gizmo both came up short.

A nervous clench formed in Angel's stomach. This was not good. It worsened as time went on without notice. Her stomach felt as if it was squeezed in a fist…Slade's fist…and her heart had dropped down out of her chest. Her ribs were tight around her lungs as worry built inside of her. The fire felt as if it was scorching her skin.

No Raven.

"Not yet," she reminded herself, forcing herself to remain positive. "Not yet. She'll show up. Don't worry."

She leaned back on the building she sat on, listening to the struggles of the people fighting the fire. And the people trapped inside, dying, begging to be saved. Angel felt almost no remorse for them, but that ember in the pit of her stomach was more noticeable as time grew on. It felt almost as bad as the fist she imagined punching down on her.

"Do you have anything yet?" she asked them.

"No."

"Nope."

"Not a thing," read an automated voice, speaking Kyd's text aloud.

Angel sighed again. Heat licked at the edges of her wings, laid thick across her skin. Eventually, it became so bad that it felt like the fire had grown around her, touching her legs. Angel had to fly away from it.

Let no one mistake this as guilt, she thought.

An hour passed before the smoke clouded the entire city. The entire city was burning, orange and red and scalding heat, filled with screams and wailing sirens. Not even the rain could solve such a disaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't find anything on Raven's official birthday no matter where I looked, so I based her birthday off of the date when DC comics first introduced her.


	18. Chapter 18

The day of her birthday, and young nine-year-old Raven was already starting to feel the pain of her increasing powers. Her arms ached, her heart felt heavy, her legs were screaming to the point where Raven levitated nearly everywhere. And, sometimes in the night when the pain increased with the moonlight, she was reduced to tears. 

Even the fibers of her hair were starting to sting as her dark powers increased.

Raven looked at a vase in her room, and released her powers just to relieve some of the pain. The relief rushed through her veins as dark powers flowed from her body, and the vase crumbled into a million pieces, and then a billion, and then more, each as fine as a grain of sand. But when all was said and done, the pain started to come back, working its way deep into her bones. Raven released her powers more, trying to find some peace in her body. She made a whirlwind of black magic around her, letting it swirl and swim together in the air around her. She kept releasing the pain from her body, and the aching stinging pain left her for a little while.

But whenever Raven stopped, the pain would return within a minute's time. She still didn't let her feet touch the floor; it felt like she was walking on broken glass.

With a moan of pain, she placed her hands down on the floor, ignoring the sharp cut that stung her nerves, and released every bit of her powers that she could. The black energy seeped from her hands, spreading on the floor in a puddle, a pond, and then a lake of powers. It flowed from beyond her bedroom, like water flooding the floor. Black magic started running down the stairs like a river, then traveling up the wall like ivy.

Raven didn't care. The pain was starting to go away from her. So she kept letting it consume her room, creeping along the ceiling and climbing up on her bed, eating away at her books. It covered the hallways, spilling into the temples and rooms where people slept, meditated, read, ate.

Even this late at night, people started to notice the change, the shift in the atmosphere around them. When they looked down they saw the luminescent black starting to pool around their feet and inch its way up their legs.

Some panicked, others were simply fed up, and others just didn't care.

But everyone knew, this was Raven's doing.

Tears started to roll down her face as she bled out the painful magic, and she made no attempt to stop them. Raven didn't care. She was far too young to even understand, far too young to handle so much pain, far too young to realize exactly what the consequences of anything would be in the long run. So she let her tears roll down her face, dripping into the black pool of magic beneath her, unaware of the impact this-or anything-had.

Her breath started to ease as the magic consumed more and more of Azarath.

Azar's footsteps echoed on the stairs as she came running up the temple, her bare feet being sucked at like mud was sinking beneath her, trying to trap her. Still, she only pulled her white robes up over her knees and continued to run up the stairs, followed closely by Arella. Raven couldn't hear them, and it was only after they had burst into the room that she noticed them.

She cried out in shock and fear, stumbling backwards and landing on her hands and thighs painfully. The black magic continued to bleed from her palms and her bare feet. She trembled, not knowing what either woman would do to her. But she was in so much pain that she didn't think it would matter. Azar's eyes, bright purple and so often calm and cool, were wild with fright and concern. Raven looked away, unable to look at Azar in such a state. It wasn't right, for her to look like that. That just wasn't who she was.

"Raven, please, stop!" said Arella, rushing forward and putting her hands on Raven's shoulders.

Raven squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, tears still falling free from her eyes. Arella's hands gripped tighter on her shoulders, fear etched into every detail in her face. Arella grit her teeth, tears of her own threatening to spill out of them.

"Please…Raven…" Raven heard her beg.

Azar knelt beside Arella, putting a soothing hand on Arella's shoulder. Arella looked at her, eyes feral in nature. Raven was her daughter, her one and only child, and she wanted so badly to protect and care for her. And if she saw Azar interfering with that, she wasn't afraid to strike out at her. But Azar calmly lowered Arella's hands from Raven's shoulders, and picked the girl up in her arms.

The magic connection severed from the floor, stopping the flood immediately. The black still lingered, though, though Azar knew that with time it would fade away as it always did. She walked through the magic like it was water, her skirts down around her ankles again. Black energy kept flowing from Raven's feet, and it soaked Azar's robes as she carried her higher up in the temples.

Up, higher and higher, to where the magic was less. Almost untouched were the stones beneath their feet and the walls around them. Still, it lingered there, darkness pooling thick in the corners and crevices when it shouldn't be, stretching out across the floors and walls, along the windows and darkening the very air.

They made their way to Azar's private quarters.

Raven didn't pay any attention. She only rested her head on Azar's shoulder, softly weeping, letting the energy taint everything around her. She didn't care. Couldn't care. She still didn't know what was going on, not truly, even after Azar had explained to her time and time again.

Raven was set down on a bed. She felt softness around her and the cool cradle of sheets. It eased her pain. From her fingertips ran droplets of dark energy, significantly less than before.

"Aaliyah!" Azar called out.

Arella was on the bed with Raven, holding her hand, not caring that the darkness was racing up her arms, seeping its way into her veins and bones, traveling up her body and bleeding into her white robes to turn it black. She stroked Raven's hair out of her face, trying to bring some kind of comfort to her.

Aaliyah arrived at the door, Azar said something to her that neither Raven nor Arella caught, and was gone.

Azar turned back around to face them, taking slow, steady breaths. Standing still, she crossed her hands in front of her, waiting patiently, calmly, for Aaliyah to return. The lids of her eyes drooped downwards, and she lulled herself into a meditative state.

"Here!" Azar heard behind her, after nearly a minute had passed. Aaliyah passed the green paste to Azar, and then left them alone again.

"Raven," Azar said, her voice filling the room and echoing like thunder.

Raven opened her eyes and sat up. She was scared, not only of her powers and the unknown, but of Azar right then and there. She knew it was never a good thing when Azar amplified her voice, magically or naturally.

"Hold your hands out," Azar commanded, and Raven did as told.

An oil was quickly spread over her hands, and then the rest of her arms as Azar's slid her sleeves up. A green paste was then put on her hands. Raven watched as Azar decorated her hands with shapes that were only somewhat familiar to her. Her hands were both slowly covered with symbols and designs, edging its way from the tips of her fingers and up to her wrists and up her arms to her elbows.

"These are protection charms," Azar told her, before Raven could ask. "Runic symbols, protection spells, seals, charms, and much more. They will help you control this…" Azar trailed off, searching for the right words. "This is happening because this is the day of your birth," she then explained. Raven listened and watched, as still and silent as the dead. When Azar was done with her arms, she began on her feet and legs. "These symbols will protect you, heal you, purify you, and prevent your powers from taking control."

A long moment of silence passed between them all.

"Azar," Raven whispered, her voice low and trembling, "I'm scared."

"I know you are," Azar said to her. The charms had all been completed, and Raven sat there silently, arms and legs covered with the paste, not moving or shifting in the slightest. Her eyes were downcast, looking at her feet but now really seeing them.

"Raven," Azar said, as gently as she could, "look at me."

Raven did. She looked at her but she still didn't see her. Not really. Eyes and a face, but nothing more than that.

"We have talked about this before. You know what is happening, do you not?"

Azar sat down cross-legged in front of Raven, almost eye-level with her. Raven slowly nodded, all of her teachings coming back to her. She should've meditated more, she should have calmed herself, she should have done anything other than what she had done. She was ashamed, ashamed of her power, ashamed of her heritage, and she found it harder and harder to maintain eye contact with Azar.

All powerful, all knowing, truth-seeking Azar.

"It is because of my heritage," Raven said slowly.

Azar nodded.

"My father's name is Trigon. He is a demon created of Azarath's power, and the powers of other dimensions, and he is evil. He seeks complete domination of everything and everyone in the mortal realms. He hungers for blood and fire."

Azar nodded again.

"My powers are stronger now because today is the anniversary of when a manifestation of Trigon's evilness and dark powers was born." Raven's voice cracked as she said the last words. Arella tried hugging Raven to her, to comfort her, but Raven pulled away from her. Even when Arella put a single hand on Raven's shoulder, she shrugged it off, not wanting her mother to touch her.

"You will sleep here tonight," Azar announced. Looking at Arella, she said, "You may leave."

"I'm not leaving," Arella replied.

Azar's eyes flicked from Arella, to Raven, and then back to Arella. "I believe it would be best," Azar replied, still as calm as ever.

"I'm not leaving," Arella repeated, her voice stronger.

"Arella—"

"I'm. Not. Leaving," she repeated for the third time. "Raven is my daughter, my child; I will stay with her." Her eyes hardened, and a fire burned within them. She silently challenged Azar; Try to take my daughter away from me, her eyes said. Try to take her from me and it will end badly for you. I will not be separated from her. Do not you dare try to take her from me.

Azar sighed, knowing how stubborn Arella could be.

"Arella," she said again, her voice sounding tired, "I believe Raven would need some time alone from other people. She feeds on their emotions, given to her by her empathic powers, and she needs time away from that. It only hurts her more."

Arella's frown shifted to Raven, who sat quietly beside her, unmoving and unblinking.

"She needs time alone," Azar said again. "Strong emotions will not benefit her; they will hurt her."

Arella sighed in defeat, her face twisted with anger and sadness, and got up off of Azar's bed. Turning to Raven, she said, "I love you," and left.

Raven was left alone in the room, nothing to say or do. She only sat there, letting the time tick by.

Seconds into minutes…

Minutes into large chunks of time that created hours…

She didn't know how much time had passed, or if time had passed at all.

The paste on her hands and feet were drying, and she gave a few curious twitches to see what it would do. The paste cracked, and Raven stopped moving for fear of breaking the protection. She did notice, however, that a slight stain had been left on her skin where the green paste was. The seals would still work if she cracked the paste off of her, but that was only a maybe and she didn't want to chance it. The relief was too much.

Carefully, she folded her hands on her lap, crossed her legs, and floated up into the air. Her eyes closed, and she let the darkness beneath her lids fill her mind. It was nothing, and that nothingness was peaceful. The darkness calming, even with the shapes and colors that danced before her vision. She focused, letting those shapes fade too, until all that she was left with was the blank slate of black before her.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she chanted, her voice just below a whisper.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Her voice cracked as she spoke, and when she tried to repeat the words, nothing came out of her mouth. She thought that she was too scared to, or too spooked. Taking a deep breath, and looking down at the protection and healing seals placed on her skin, she tried again.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she said, her voice strong this time.

How long must I do this? came an intruding thought. She pushed it out, but it came back again. How long must I do this? An hour? Eight hours? Twenty eight hours? More?

Her voice trembled; her voice came back stronger; her voice echoed around the room; her voice was a whisper; she said nothing and only mouthed the words; her voice was quiet and normal; her voice was loud and forceful. She still had not mastered meditation or getting her thoughts centered.

"Azarath…

"Metrion…

"Zinthos…"

As the final word left her lips, she felt another presence close in on her. She opened her eyes as she felt it approach, a shadowy half-form that slowly made its way towards her, making its way over without a single footstep on the floor. When the face appeared in the doorway, Raven recognized it.

"Hello, child," said the monk before Raven could even speak. "Do you remember me?"

"Yes," Raven quietly replied. "You're the monk from…" She couldn't remember when or where she had last seen him. But that didn't seem important to him; he only seemed pleased that she recognized him. And that she had not cried out for help.

He came into the room, and thought Raven listened, she could still not hear a footstep. He came right in front of her, looking down at her. Even as she floated a good three feet off of the floor, he still towered over her. He was tall enough that she had to crane her head back to see his face.

"Today is the anniversary of your birth," the monk stated.

"Yes," Raven replied.

"You are in pain," the monk said.

"Yes."

"Do you know why you are in pain?" the monk asked her.

"No."

"It is because you are so small and weak. You are timid and frail, and your body is breakable. The power that is in you is great and terrifying, not meant to be contained within human flesh. It is a deadly thing, and a force to be reckoned with. But all who try to reckon with it will be wounded."

His words scared her but Raven still said nothing. She couldn't say anything; her focus was too rapt on his face, trying to memorize it but couldn't if she tried. He had eyes, he had a mouth, he had a white hood that was drawn up over his head.

"One of these days, you won't be burdened with such a pain."

"I won't?!" Raven asked, too surprised to be quiet.

"No," the monk replied. "One day, you will find peace, serenity. You will be calm and quiet. You won't feel pain. Your evil powers will no longer burden you." He paused then, and leaned down, staring at her. Raven leaned back a little, not wanting him to stare at her like that. He was intimidating, and his eyes seemed to stare straight into her very soul. She felt like he could break her just by looking at her. "Trust me on that. For you are evil, remember that."

"I'm evil," Raven repeated, whispering the words. "But...I can't be..."

The monk said nothing in return. Still he looked at her, like he was trying to rip her apart limb from limb and shred her soul into a hundred different pieces with just his eyes. "You are evil," he repeated. "You must accept that. You will be happier if you do." And with that he was gone.

Raven was left alone in the room, still scared and shaking, still floating with her hands and legs crossed. She couldn't focus, couldn't meditate. She licked her lips, determined to try again. When she pushed the words out of her, she chanted, "The gem was born of evil's fire…"

That had been one of her better birthdays.


	19. Chapter 19

The skies burned.

Jump City burned, bright and horrid, the thunder clouds orange and red and filled with more smoke than water. Ruin worked its way through the city like a virus; the flames spread, devouring far too easily. The fire burned not just buildings, but people. Those unfortunate enough to be caught in the fire, unable to escape, unable to get away. Some screamed, others cried, and some were silent as the flames licked at their skin. People were beating on it, stomping on it, dousing it was gallons upon gallons of water. It seemed to make no difference.

The fire raged on.

The city was in a state of panic. All around was a cacophony of wailing sirens, crackling and roaring fire, deafening roars as walls fell and rundown ramshackle buildings collapsed, and on top of all this was the screaming and crying and words of people all slurred together.

How had a fire spread so quick? they asked.

What happened? they asked.

Where are my loved ones? they asked.

No one had any answers.

Smoke filled their lungs. Flesh burned. Some were lost in a maze of stairwells, unable to exit the scorched ruin of the buildings, and so they were trapped there. High up in a building somewhere, as firefighters rushed in to save them, a young girl protected her little brother from the flames that grew ever closer. In the end, the brother was forced to close his sister's eyes, knowing they would never reopen.

The four HIVE students collected in the center of a park, the branches of a tree burning, leaves turning to ash beneath the dying roots.

"What have we done?" Mammoth asked, looking at the fire-streaked horizon and the sky aglow with red storm clouds.

"What we needed to do," Angel replied, though her voice was sullen and unsure.

She cast her eyes downwards, and walked over to the burning tree, soot collecting on the bottoms of her feet. She rested a hand on the blackened trunk, and looked up at the the withering, broken branches. Small bits of fire and ash rained down on her, but she didn't care. She felt as if she deserved it. Or that she was rewarded by it. She didn't know which.

Kyd Wykkd said nothing, as he always did. But it was Gizmo's silence that was truly startling. At the HIVE, no one had ever been able to shut him up. Now, he was silent as the grave, not even a smirk on his face. Not a horrified expression either, but a blank, vacant look down at the grass beneath the metal claws of his suit. No one could read shame on his face; no one could read pride. There was nothing on his face, nothing left.

"We did what was asked of us," Angel said, removing her hand from the tree and walking back to them. "Slade wanted the city burned, so we did it. We got our reward, we succeeded in our mission. Nothing is left to do. It's his problem now."

They all silently agreed.

This was Slade's doing, they reasoned, despite the fact that it was them who had lit the matches and dropped them everywhere. This was Slade's doing that people died, towers were burning, and livelihood were ruined. His doing.

"So now what?" Mammoth asked.

Angel shrugged. "We run," she suggested.

Mammoth turned to her, confused. "Weren't we supposed to bring that other Titan girl to Slade?" he asked Angel.

"Yes," Angel said with a sigh, "we were."

"But then—?"

"We were paid in full," Angel said, cutting him off. "I see no reason to stay. Besides, if I remember the track records correctly, Slade's the type of man to take matters into his own hands."

Before Mammoth could put up another protest, Angel tucked herself into Kyd Wykkd's side just as he wrapped his cloak around the both of them, and they were gone.

Mammoth and Gizmo stood alone in the park.

"Well, I'm not gonna stay here," Gizmo said, and turned to leave. Mammoth stood still for a long time, watching Gizmo as he left, his figure growing smaller and smaller until Mammoth finally decided to follow him. He left one part of the burning city behind him, and followed Gizmo into another part. He didn't know where they were heading, so he just followed Gizmo the entire way.

___________________________________

The rain cleared up as Raven slowly made her way back towards Jump City.

She walked mostly with her eyes closed, savoring the new peace she felt within herself. She kept her black cloak bundled around her shoulders, and she let her bare feet sink deep into the earthen ground. Life poured from the earth, and it seeped into her feet, past her skin and into her blood. Rich, black soil on her body, coating her feet, rainy air in her lungs. A protective, magical cloak over her skin. She was whole, she was healed, she was alive.

Best birthday ever, she thought. No pain, no fear, no impending doom, no guilt, no wishing that she wasn't alive.

Raven opened her eyes, thinking that Jump City was only a short ways away from her. She didn't know how long she had been walking, but she didn't care. She could have walked forever and ever in that forest, but she knew she had friends waiting for her, and a city to protect. To actually be able to protect a city, and not just help out while preparing to end it.

Elated could not even begin to describe what she felt.

Relief was another.

Tranquility too.

Raven let these thoughts run around in her head until she couldn't think anymore. Her footsteps slowed, and she stopped walking altogether. She put a hand to her forehead, her fingers brushing up against the gem on her head, as she fought to ward off a feeling of unease.

"Just paranoia," she told herself. "Not used to this feeling."

The hairs on her arms stood up, and she felt prickling up and down her spine.

Raven took a few more steps, walking along with that same uneasy feeling, until it began to mount. It thrummed in her head, and she noticed a certain edge to her headache. It was empathic; she was catching the emotions of distress for dozens of people. No, dozens of people wouldn't be able to affect her from so far away.

Hundreds?

Raven felt a fluttering in her chest, and then a subtle panic in between her ribs.

Her feet left the forest floor and she flew forward, flying towards Jump City with an urgency that was propelling her forward.

Something's wrong, she thought. What's happened?

Dread replaced her relief, and horror replaced her elation. Clouds above her turned from a soft, watery gray to the colors of sunset. Only more sinister. The sky was tainted with smoke and ash, and the skies burned red and orange. It only made Raven fly faster, into the wafting smoke that threatened to choke her and made her eyes water. Into what she knew was a nightmare come to life.

The edge of the woods neared, and rural Jump City came into view. Narrow streets and single-story houses and low, rundown pizza places. Smoke clotted in the air and brought tears to her eyes. From afar, she could hear the wail of sirens and feel the panic of hundreds of people stabbing her in the chest.

Raven flew higher, up past the canopy of the trees and into the air, where the smoke still surrounded her. Until all of Jump City lay before her, high-rises to skyscrapers to the shoreline to the parks to the suburban neighborhoods. The city burned; fire and smoke and ash and the screams of people and the shriek of sirens and the continuous fall of tears.

"No," was all Raven could say, and she could barely say even that.

She levitated in the sky, not saying or doing anything but merely floating there, watching the whole city burn without a thought in her mind or a word on her lips. She couldn't think of what to say or do, but only watch in horror. It was her birthday, and the skies were burning once again. It was her birthday and she had brought destruction again, for she knew that she was somehow responsible for this. She always was, in some shape or form.

Her cloak fluttered around her as she watched horror-stricken. A warm wind met her, carrying the heat of the flames to her, and Raven looked down.

My fault, she thought to herself. My fault.

But how? I was out of town. I left. Why is the city burning when I wasn't here?

Raven looked up.

I need to help, she thought.

She cast herself into the burning city, heading directly into and then past the flames. The flames touched her but she didn't burn; she never did. The fire was far too welcoming, though she shielded herself from the flames with her dark powers. Sirens wailed all around her, and she felt a thousand different emotions crashing into her from all sides.

She saw jets of water from a nearby fire hydrant pouring onto an apartment building, and she felt a strong wave of fear radiating from inside. She morphed through the burning brick walls, and entered a burning building for the second time that week.

She wanted to sigh, exasperated; she didn't want to go through this shit again.

Phantom emotions lingered in the deserted rooms; she saw the image of one young boy, clinging to his sister. She sensed no life coming from the girl, and her heart sank. She did sigh then, for she couldn't hold it back. She knew it wasn't her fault, told herself that, but the guilt that she felt…

It was the guilt the boy felt, seeping into her own mind. Everything was seeping into her mind; the boy's guilt and his fear and his desperation.

She stepped into the bedroom that he cowered in.

When he peeked out, he cried out in fear and sunk back.

Empathically, Raven saw how she looked to him. Through the fire and ashes of his home stepped a demon dressed in black with her feet stained with soil and covered in shadows (despite the light). Raven pulled back her hood, trying to set the boy at ease somewhat. Didn't help. He clung harder to his sister.

"I'll help you," Raven gently said. She stayed a distance away from him, to seem less threatening.

The boy made no response.

"I'll help you," Raven repeated. "I can get you out of here. Get you someplace safe."

Teary eyes looked up at her, watering from smoke and sorrow. Raven saw his fear, still lingering as he looked at her.

Raven walked forward a few more steps, and the boy didn't shy away. His eyes remained locked on her as she approached, stopping just short of him and the body he cowered behind. Without a word, she enveloped them all in a sphere of shadows, and he shivered at the creepy feeling that ran across his nerves. Raven paid no attention to it; she cloaked them all in her magic and flew from the building, an almost shapeless raven flying down from the ruins and close to the ground. She placed them both down onto the grass. The grass was red in the firelight, but it was un-scorched.

"You're…you're a Titan, aren't you?" the boy asked Raven.

Raven blinked. "Yeah," she said, almost too quiet to hear.

A firefighter came running at seeing the two children, stopping when he saw the dead girl laying on the grass. Slowly, quietly, he knelt beside them, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder and trying to turn him away.

Raven flew away before anyone could see her, in the shape of a raven flying through the red sky.

I need to get water to them, I need it to rain… Raven thought to herself as she flew. I can't save everyone like that. No matter how hard I try. Damn it, where's the others?

Raven transformed back, black tendrils falling away like ribbons as she resumed her natural form. She pat at her suit, looking for her communicator. That damn cat brought it back, right? she wondered as she continued to search herself. Finally, she found it and pulled it free.

"Robin, where are you guys?" she asked, pressing and holding down the button.

Only static in return.

She tried dialing, but nothing. Only a blank, black screen. She tried for Cyborg, then Starfire, then Beast Boy. None of them answered. She tried the open line again, pressing and holding down the button as she spoke into it, hoping that anyone would listen, or that anyone would answer.

Nothing.

She put her communicator away, knowing that she couldn't just stand there waiting for someone to talk to her.

Over the ocean she flew, stopping only when the water was deep enough. The bright oranges and yellows shimmered on the ocean surface, the waves glinting in the light before fading into dark blue. Raven knew it would take a lot of energy on her part, and great concentration.

But she knew she could do it because she had done it before.

Not in a situation this dire, but she had done it before.

Black magic consumed the water, reaching across the surface and deep down into the vast depths. Raven pulled all she could from the ocean, and moved the water slowly towards the city. The water formed as a tidal wave, as she pulled it along the ocean. As she neared the city, she pulled the water free from the sea. A tsunami wouldn't be beneficial; rain would. The water shifted and swirled above her head, up higher as she flew, spreading out over an expanse of the city where it would all come down as a thick, pouring rain.

Her magic dissipated, and the water came pouring down on both her and the city below her. She watched as the fires stifled or died off, and breathed a sigh of relief. She could do that a few more times, despite the massive amounts of energy that it had cost her.

I can't do this alone, she thought, and pulled her communicator out again, checking for anyone and anything to answer her and come help her.

Finally, she heard a voice on the other side.

"Raven…? What's happening…?"

She recognized it as Aqualad's voice. She opened her mouth to respond, but instead of words came a sharp cry of pain. Raven's hand shot to her stinging arm, and she saw blood starting to well through her fingers. Her fingers were slick with sea water, the salt causing the wound to sting more. She only grit her teeth and squeezed harder, willing the blood to stop.

Her head whipped around to see who had shot at her.

"Angel!" she hissed.

Giant white wings beat against the sky, and Raven saw another throwing knife aimed her way. She dodged it easily, flying out of the way before it could hit her. With her powers, she captured the throwing knife and whipped it around, sending it back Angel's way. She dodged it just as easily as Raven had.

What the hell is she doing here? Raven wondered. And where are the others? What's happened to them?

Angel flew fast, beating her wings rapidly. Strong currents of air threatened to force Raven down, but she would not let it. Raven focused on her levitation, and when Angel came at her again, she flinched. With her concentration broken, she fell, plummeting nearly fifty feet before she caught herself.

Black shadows flew to her hands to defend herself. Throwing knives peppered the makeshift shield she had created. When the shield dissipated, the knives fell, raining down like sea water.

Angel rammed her body into Raven's, her giant wings smacking her body repeatedly.

"Stop it!" Raven said through gritted teeth.

Angel heard, but she didn't listen.

Another fifty feet Raven fell, this time barely missing the concrete of a high rise. Flames timidly licked at her back, and Raven embraced the heat.

She was reminded of her demon self, the part of her that she had long tried to suppress. The part of her that was immune to fire and flames, but not the pain and the heat. The part of her that could control the hellfire, the smoke, and the ashes. Raven felt the fire in her, in her heart and spreading through her veins like the burn of pure alcohol.

Her lips spread into a snarl, revealing unnaturally sharp teeth, newly grown. Red eyes glowed as blood and rage seeped into her vision. Raven felt her second set of eyes begin to twitch, but she would not let them open. She still remembered that part of herself.

Angel hesitated.

Raven smiled, teeth gleaming, eyes glowing red, and then she attacked.

Her nails had turned to claws, and when Raven slashed open Angel's skin, a thin stream of blood welled out onto her body. Angel raged as she saw red trickle down her arm. She and Raven collided midair, Angel's wings flapping hard enough to beat Raven to unconsciousness, but this Raven was too quick. Too precise.

Behind them, the building started to burn even more. What was once a kindling grew with each beat of Angel's wings, and the flames became stronger and stronger. Eventually a new, raging red fire had bloomed behind them. It fueled Raven; it reminded her of Limbo, of her father scratching her skin with his nails and burning the symbols into her, and then of Slade re-burning them into her. It reminded her of the branding irons that had once been pressed onto her in a desperate attempt to sanctify her, and of the nightmares that had plagued her ever since she'd learned about witch burning. All this and more.

The fire came when she called it.

Silently, her hand beckoning towards the flames, they rushed towards her, around her palms, and then around her body. She could smell singed hair and burnt feathers, and Raven knew that Angel had been burned.

It horrified her.

But she didn't stop. Couldn't.

The black cloak was burning on her shoulders, burning in a way that the fire didn't. It was white hot and scratching at her skin, making her nerves feel irritably strange. It was numbing, and Raven didn't like it.

She ignored it for a while, letting it simply sting her nerves while she battled Angel. The fire was at her beck and call, and she wielded it gladly. If Angel was frightened by the red eyes and demonic fire, (the sharp teeth and claws), then she didn't show it.

But Raven could sense it on her.

Angel had not expected this. She had expected Raven the Teen Titan, not Raven the demon. Angel's surprise turned into hesitation, and her throwing knives were the slightest bit late, becoming useless in the wind. When Angel saw her throwing knives melt in the flames, her eyes widened, and Raven could smell the fear on her. It was small, barely a hint of fear in her scent, but it was there all the same.

Raven was about to strike. Claws pointed and lips pulled back, she tried to lunge. 

She stopped mid-flight as a bolt hot as lightning streaked through her skin.

The burning, numbing cloak became too much for Raven to handle. Without bothering for the clasp, she tore the fabric loose, shredding edge. Little ghostly whispers escaped from the torn fabric. Just as Raven was about to toss it into the fire, Angel's throwing knives connected with the cloak.

The black cloak, Azar's most cherished gift to Raven, was ripped apart by the knives. Strips of the shredded fabric fluttered down into the fire.

Raven was too stunned to do anything.

She watched transfixed as ribbons of her cloak fell towards the fire. They didn't burn; they didn't need to. Tears started stinging in Raven's eyes as she looked at her destroyed cloak.

Azar's gift, Raven's mind said. The words echoed in her thoughts.

Her demon left her body, and Raven was back to normal.

She was simply Raven again. A Titan, a young woman with powers, a grain of sand in the world.

"My…my cloak…" Raven whispered, her words threatening to choke her. "Azar…"

With Raven distracted, Angel was about to attack again.

She never got the chance; from the shreds of Raven's cloak came shadows. Shadows with fingers and arms, heads and mouths and whispers; whispered threats and whispered curses. Raven stayed rooted to the spot as she watched shadows creep from her cloak, slowly taking form, limbs elongating from the shapeless bodies. Claws formed at the ends of their fingers.

The shadows lunged at Raven…

…then passed her.

Behind her, Raven heard Angel's scream.

She didn't need to turn to know what had happened. Angel was being consumed by the shadowy creatures, ones that Raven knew she had created. All her fears and insecurities, all the demons both real and unreal who haunted her, demons that had been captured by Azar's cloak long ago in that forest…they were released again.

Raven didn't flinch when one came up to her and snapped its faded teeth inches from her face.

She didn't move when the shadows morphed away, through the walls and roofs, through the air and the burning sky. All over the city the shadows began to dwell, lurking just past the fires. Raven could do no more than stand there, lamenting over her torn cloak.

"Azar…" she whispered, falling down onto her knees. "I'm so sorry…" She bowed her head in both grief and respect, closing her eyes.

What would Azar say? What would she feel? Would she be angry? Disappointed? Uninterested? Raven couldn't know. But in every image, severe purple eyes were glaring at her; a thought that she couldn't shake. Her shoulders trembled as the gaze ripped through her mind. "Azar…I'm so, so, so sorry…"

"You can be sorry later," said a voice behind her. Raven saw a partial shadow cover her body, and then everything went dark.


	20. Chapter 20

When Raven awoke, darkness swam in front of her eyes. Even though she blinked and blinked she could not get rid of the nauseating sight in front of her. Colors shifted and she saw phantom lights at the corners of her eyes. She took a deep breath, and put a hand to her head. She focused her healing powers, letting her body repair itself with magic. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that the lights were candle flames all around her.

Raven saw there were candles forming a circle around her, and looking down, she saw that within the circle were drawn symbols. She couldn't place the symbols, though; they weren't of any craft she recognized.

The hairs on her arms rose. She picked up a presence approaching her. She could feel their emotions: smug, happy, proud, apprehensive, nervous.

"Hello, Raven," said a voice from the shadows. "Nice of you to join to land of the living."

Panic rushed through Raven at his words, but she quickly consoled herself, telling herself that those were just words, a common phrase and nothing more. He didn't actually know anything. Nothing about her being pulled down…

"I was never dead," Raven replied.

She tried to push herself onto her feet, but failed. She tried to play it off, though, not wanting to look weak in front of whoever this was.

Their voice…wasn't familiar, but she knew that she had heard it somewhere before. She thought. There were a lot of voices in the world, and something itched in the back of her mind that told her she should know this voice. Still, no one came to mind.

Two more people were approaching, then another two, then another two. Raven could sense them easily enough, pinpoint where they stood even though she couldn't see them, and she knew that they were standing in a circle around the symbol that she lay within. Raven used her power to float up and put herself on her feet. She slowly let herself down, making sure that she was steady before she let gravity take over again. Raven strode forward, close to the edge of the circle, but before she could get to the barrier, a prickling pain along her skin told her she was locked in.

"Who are you?" Raven demanded. "Show your face."

"As you wish, deary," said that same voice again.

Before he was completely into the light, Raven saw him. Brother Blud. Her brows furrowed in confusion. Blud? What did he want with her? She watched as he continued to walk forward, the skirts of his ceremonial robe fluttering too close to the candle flames.

"Why am I here?" Raven demanded again.

Brother Blud sighed and shook her head, eyes closed. "Youth these days," he muttered. "No patience. No respect for their elders."

Raven remained silent as she waited for her answer. She knew Blud from when Cyborg had battled him, and she knew by now that he liked to gloat. Just like every other supposed superior criminal "mastermind."

As she waited, she glanced around to see the other people. They were all silent and still, cloaked in dark robes, the hoods drawn up over their heads and the shadows concealing their faces. Aside from the robes, she could see nothing about them, but she could feel it. All of them had bottled up anxiety, apprehension for what was to come, yet she felt their giddiness and hopefulness at the same time. Her mind raced trying to figure out what this all meant.

"Talk," Raven said, sending out her powers to strike Blud in his back.

"Oof." Blud's eyes shot daggers at her, but Raven returned the glare far better than he could. So Blud straightened himself, and said, "What, you can't figure it out?"

Raven said nothing.

Blud faked a laugh, and then continued. "Well, then, I'll tell you. It began long ago, shortly after Cyborg demolished my school and sent me into exile. I spent a long time searching for a solution, reading through all my archives, and then eventually digging up information on my enemies. You Titans, that is. I searched and I studied and then I came upon a certain file that piqued my interest.

"You, my dear, had the most interesting file. I noticed 'half-demon' on the very first page of your profile, and when I saw that, I knew that pursuing you would be promising.

"And, eventually, all my research was rewarding. I discovered that you are a daughter of a very powerful demon. A very, very powerful demon. So, I thought to myself, if I were to kidnap Raven, I would have my villain status back. But no, that wasn't enough. I needed more. So, your demon parent will be pulled into this, too. You and them will be at my beck and call."

Raven recoiled, clearly disgusted. "You're a fool," she hissed. "If you think Trigon is going to serve you."

"Trigon, huh?" Blud asked.

Raven's jaw dropped. Blud didn't even know the name of the demon he was attempting to raise? What was he thinking? Raven had never thought of Brother Blud as an idiot to this day.

"You're a fool," Raven said again, unable to fully believe his stupidity. "You have no idea what you're doing. No idea what you're calling forth!"

"Please, Raven," Blud chided. "I've done a lot of research. I think I can handle whatever comes my way."

Raven put her head in her hands, fighting off a headache. She shook her head, still unable to believe him. "Truly a fool," she mumbled.

_______________________________________

Their prison wasn't really a prison, but they were captive nonetheless. Chains circled around their wrists and ankles, and with their bodies battered and weak, they didn't have much chance at breaking them. On top of that, they were hungry, and thirst was starting to gnaw at their throat.

As for where they were being held prisoner, they surmised that it was a tunnel in some kind of cave. The rock walls, the stone stalactite, the shape and sound. A few solid knocks on the wall told them that this was the real deal, not some cheap imitation.

Starfire sighed, and scooted back underneath the dripping water coming down from the roof. It trickled around a thin stalactite and slowly fell onto her waiting tongue. The tiny bits of water could only do so much; her throat was still dry and parched from breathing in the smoke from the flames. And as the time ticked by, and each of her teammates took turns sharing the little bit of water they had, it was only getting worse.

"Beast Boy, it is your turn," Starfire said bitterly. She wanted more, but she couldn't keep Beast Boy waiting. He scampered forwards, his chains rattling as he made his way over to the dripping water. He was dragging his broken leg behind him, and all of the Titans winced at the sight; to say it looked painful was an understatement.

Beast Boy held his tongue out, waiting for the water to drip down on him. After what seemed like an eternity, there came the water.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

He moaned as his throat was slowly soothed.

"You know," Cyborg said, his voice scratchy, "this is shoddy work. Even if it wasn't Slade, this wouldn't be enough to hold us for long."

"We aren't going anywhere until I finish," Beast Boy said, and opened his mouth for another few drops.

"Guys, look," Cyborg said, and yanked hard on his chains. The rock that the metal chains were bolted to started to crumble, with dust and rock falling at his feet. "Within about thirty minutes, anyone could get out of these things."

"It's not about the chains," Robin said, his voice even scratchier. "Even if we did break them, the only place to go is up." As he said this, he lifted his head up towards the cavernous ceiling. It didn't end; it was dark and his voice was echoing off the walls. It was the only way out of there, to climb high up those dark walls until they could find a tunnel out of the vent.

"Did you forget that we have two people who can fly on our team?" Cyborg asked Robin.

"Did you forget that Beast Boy has a broken leg?" Robin replied. "Even if we did set it, and even if he transforms in order to heal himself faster, he's still injured too badly." Robin looked over at Beast Boy, who was swallowing the last bit of water. "How's that leg doing, by the way?" Robin asked him.

"Not so good," Beast Boy replied, limping back over to his sitting place. "But it could be worse. Thanks for helping cast it, man," Beast Boy said, balancing on his one good leg before transforming into a bird and sitting down. No matter what shape he chose, the chains stayed attached to him.

"Robin, it is your turn," Starfire said.

Robin nodded, and stood up. The muscles in his legs burned, and his bones ached down to the marrow. His throat was burning, aching for the sweet relief of water. He made his way over underneath the stalactite and parted his lips. The first drop of water landed on his chapped lips, and he licked the water off of them. Then he tilted his head back and let the water pool in his mouth before swallowing.

Cyborg was still working on the chains. He tugged at them, with more gravelly bits of rock crumbling with each forceful pull he gave. The chains may have been bolted deep into the rock walls, but they were no match for him. And, Cyborg noticed, the rock was oddly soft. He reckoned that they were somewhere within the tunnels of a dormant volcano.

He didn't tell his teammates of his suspicions, though. He wasn't aware of any volcano near Jump City, and he didn't want to alert the others. In the back of his mind, he feared that they were all far, far away from home. Cyborg tried to think of the closest volcano he knew of, but each time it was a volcano that was too far away from home. He grit his teeth and gave another pull at the chains, the metal padlock loosening even more.

Starfire cringed at the chains being rattled; it reminded her too much of the citadel. She closed her eyes, trying to push it out of her head. She opened her eyes again when she didn't have much luck. She just watched Robin drink his fair share of the water and then tell Cyborg that it was his turn.

"Yeah, good idea," Cyborg said, momentarily giving up. The chains rattled as he made his way to the center of their prison, opening his mouth for the drink.

At that moment, something in Starfire snapped. She spun around, putting her foot against the rock wall, and started pulling as hard as she could against the metal padlock bolted deep into the stone. It didn't give way, but she kept trying. She grit her teeth and cried out, growling like a caged animal. She yanked hard again, and she saw gravel and dirt start to pile on the floor as the bolts were slowly being yanked out. She tried harder, until every muscle in her body burned and her fingers were beginning to bleed. She didn't stop, couldn't stop. Some kind of fire had been lit in her, and she could not rest until she was free.

It was the citadel in part; all those years being a slave to the Gordanians and locked away like that; she wouldn't stand for it again. This was the same wave of desperate, fearful determination that had freed her from them and let her find a home on Earth; why should'd it work again?

"Starfire…" Robin said hesitantly, but she never heard him. She kept working on it, satisfied by the gravel pooling on the ground with every bit of strength she exerted.

Her eyes glowed green and she shot starbolts out of her eyes, but the chain had proved unbreakable before, and it proved just as unbreakable now. She shot at the stone walls, but again they only could do so much. She was tired, her eyes were tired, and each starbolt from her eyes and hands drained her. The water could only give her so much energy.

"I…am…almost…free…" Starfire grunted.

She felt Cyborg come up behind her. He wrapped his hands around her chains, and started to pull with her. More gravel, more dust, more sore muscles, more pain in their bodies.

Cyborg helped as much as he could, until he could feel the mechanical joints starting to give way and his eyes starting to water. He had to stop. Starfire kept on at it.

That fire of determination was burning so bright, nothing could have stopped her.

The bolts gave way, and out slid at least five feet of metal poles that had been embedded deep within the rock, anchoring the padlocks to the walls. From this, getaway was easy. A smile tore across Starfire's lips, and she flew back from the wall, even more of the metal rods sliding out with her. Ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet.

Each Titan watched as the metal anchors just kept coming and coming. At last, at forty feet, the end was reached. Starfire flew up away from their ditch of a cave and started pounding the cuffs against the spiked stalagmites.

Still they would not break.

The three Titans ran back against the walls as large chunks of rock starting falling down from the ceiling.

"Hey, Star!" Beast Boy shouted. "We'd like to live down here!"

"I will not be the prisoner!" Starfire shouted, her voice echoing across the cave. "Not again!"

Robin was worried that her voice might have reached Slade's ears…wherever Slade was, and that he might come to tighten their chains. But then again, with the rage that Starfire was in, Slade would have been no match. Maybe…

Starfire howled as she was struck with something. She looked down at her breast and saw a small needle sticking out from her skin.

"You try to attempt the tranquilizing on me?!" she screamed.

Slade appeared from the shadows. "Don't make this difficult, Starfire," he warned, the tranquilizing gun still at the ready. "No need to worsen your suffering."

"I will not be doing the suffering!" Starfire screamed at him, and rushed at him, metal cuffs cleaning and the metal anchor rods pounding up against the rock. Slade dodged her easily, jumping back just as her fists slammed into the rock. The cave trembled, small chunks of stone loosening from the ceiling.

"Don't be ridiculous," Slade hissed back, but Starfire could sense the slightest bit of fear in his voice. She smiled, her eyes burning green, and she shot her starbolts at him. Slade dodged them each, but each time it was getting harder. Until finally, a starbolt hit him square in the chest and he was shot backwards. The tranquilizer gun was knocked from his hand, and Starfire crushed it beneath her foot.

Slade looked up at her, and she grabbed his suit, yanking him off his feet and to eye level with her. "Release us," she told him. If Slade hadn't known any better, he would have said that it was a murderous look in her eyes.

He laughed, calm as he could, and said, "Why would I do that?"

Starfire's eyes glowed brighter, and Slade thought for a split second that she was going to strike him in the face. The thought quickly died away thought, for he knew the Titans, and knew how they fought. "Release. Us," she repeated.

Slade chuckled again. "No."

Starfire let out a feral cry, and her eyes shot out starbolts. The bolts hit his mask, just barely able to deflect them, and Starfire threw him down onto the ground, kicking his burned and melted mask off his face. Before Slade could react, Starfire put her foot on his neck, eyes and hands still glowing green. "I will not be asking again," Starfire told him.

Slade suddenly doubted what he knew about her. What he knew about any of them. If Starfire was willing to go to such extremes…well, perhaps it was time to update his files.

When Starfire spotted his belt, she knelt down and tore it off of him. She knew the keys must have been in one of the compartments. "Be gone," Starfire commanded. "I do not wish to look at you." She added her sentence with a slight growl, one that sounded too at home in her throat.

Slade didn't retreat, but he knew a finished fight when he saw one. He stayed on the floor, clearly beaten, and when Starfire flew back down to her friends, chains rattling and metal anchors trailing after her, he didn't try to stop her.

Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were all wide-eyed and mildly terrified when she came back down to them. She didn't notice the chunks of rock that had piled up on their once clear floor. She went straight over to Robin, holding Slade's belt out to him.

"Surely the keys will be in one of the pouch compartments, yes?" she asked him. Her voice was calm again, even if her composure was somewhat tense, and her eyes still had that unnerving green glow to them.

"Yeah, should have," Robin replied, taking the belt from her hands.

He opened each pouch, searching for they keys. Finally, on the last pouch, the keys spilled out, clanging on the floor. He stooped to pick them up, and when he did he noticed the slight bit of blood on Starfire's boots. He said nothing of it.

"Let's get you out of those," Robin said quietly.

He inserted the key into the hole, and the cuffs popped open. Starfire immediately started rubbing her wrists and licking at her knuckles, trying to heal the damage that she had done. Robin himself was next, helped by Starfire to get the keys in properly. The chains clicked off and fell to the floor with a loud, echoing clank. Cyborg was after him, and when he was free the first thing he did was stretch his muscles and mechanics, trying to get his sense of feeling back in his limbs. He flexed his wrists, noting the small popping sounds with each twist. Beast Boy was last.

"Okay, now let's get out of here," Robin said, once everyone was freed.

"Agreed," said Starfire, who immediately picked up Cyborg and flew him up and out of their prison. Beast Boy followed after her, in the form of a pterodactyl with Robin in his claws.

Slade wasn't there. Starfire didn't expect him to be.


	21. Chapter 21

Not only did Brother Blud not know what demon he was summoning, but he had no idea how to summon a demon in the first place. Raven noticed how almost everything was wrong: the summoning symbols were wrong and weren't placed in the right spots, the chanting wasn't in the correct language, and he was using scrolls that referred to other, lesser demons entirely.

"Stop!" Raven cried out.

Her voice was barely audible over the chanting of the robed figures around her (for they couldn't be called monks or priestesses in the least) and the shouting of Blud as he repeated the wrong words over and over again. He wasn't even pronouncing the words right. By now, Raven was confident that they wouldn't be summoning Trigon, and that contented her, but only so much. They meant to raise a demon, and almost anyone who tries to summon a demon succeeds. But when the methods were this terrible, those demons were often twisted, bastardized versions of themselves who ended up warping things far too much.

Raven dreaded what sort of demon they might call, using this horrendous summoning ceremony. That dread only mounted when the circle around her began to glow a faint red.

Her heart started pounding her chest. Something was happening.

"Blud, you have to stop!" Raven screamed again, but no one listened. She rushed forward, meaning to grab him and slap some sense into him, but the barrier kept her from reaching him. She screamed at him again in frustration, but he blocked her voice out, focusing on the scrolls in front of him and the chanting around him.

"Blud, listen to me," Raven shouted, "this is the wrong ceremony! These are wrong chants! You're going to mess everything up!"

Blud chanted, reciting the spells, over and over again, not listening to a damn word she was saying.

The red glow became brighter as the chanting went on and on and on. Raven backed away from the barrier, fearing what the red light might do to her. There was no telling what could happen. The symbols inside the circle began to glow as well, making Raven's eyes desperately scan them, trying to find some sense in them. Nothing could come to her mind; they were all just so random that there was no way to put any meaning to them. She looked back at Blud, she looked at the people in the robes, and she ran towards one of them.

"You don't know what you're doing!" she told them. "This ceremony is all wrong! You have no idea what you're summoning!" They made no response, only chanting. "Listen to me!" Raven screamed. Her powers started to bleed from her hands, her paranoia getting the better of her.

The symbols were bright upon the floor, and Raven did her best to avoid them, standing where none of the red light could touch her. But it was slowly spreading through the air, like ink in water, and she couldn't avoid it forever. Not when she was trapped like she was.

The second she felt the red light touch her skin, she hissed and jumped back, the light burning her. She'd walked through the flames of hell, through the fires of Limbo, touched molten metal with her bare hands before, but nothing had burned her quite like that. Still, the pain didn't last long. Despite everything, Raven thought to herself, 'Thank Trigon.'

All too quickly, the glowing red light consumed her, filling every inch of the circle, the barrier lifted like a gate, barring her from escaping. Prickling pain touched every part of her skin, and her limbs were starting to go numb. "Blud!" she cried out again, but she couldn't get the next sentence out.

Raven collapsed to the ground, her knees and palms striking the stone too roughly. Raven wished she had her cloak, any cloak, wanting it to hide herself from the searing red light that made her nerves burn with pain.

A growl filled the air. One that was inhuman.

Raven's blood went cold as she heard it. Something was coming. She put a hand to her heart, trying to slow the rapid beating. "Meditate," Raven whispered to herself, but she knew she couldn't. Not like this. Never like this.

Another growl filled the air.

Raven could feel the excitement and fear growing all around her, as the emotions of Blud and his followers bombarded the air around her. So much emotion made her dizzy, which only added to her pains. She sat down cross-legged on the stone, putting her head in her hands. She jumped when she felt something like fingers brush against her arms. Her head snapped up, her eyes scanning all around her, but no one was close enough to touch her.

"Blud," she said again, only this time it was a whisper. No one could hear her; no one would have heard her anyway. She knew what that she had no choice but to sit there and wait and see what the outcome might be.

She tried to make herself hopeful. Whatever demon they might summon could easily be gotten rid of. After all, she had faced Trigon, the most powerful demon in all of the dimensions, and she had defeated him. Whatever demon this turned out to be would be nothing compared to that. Raven thought this over and over, trying to make herself believe it, but her thoughts didn't stick to her mind, since pain was constantly tearing her.

The phantom sensation of someone touching her was back, only this time it was claws. They were tearing at her skin, from her knees and up to her waist, then up to her ribs. It was using her to try to claw its way up and into this world. Raven hated the thought, and her dark powers started to flow out of her, surrounding her like a dark mist. When the thing growled, Raven growled back at it.

And when she finally saw it, a shadowy dark hand reaching out from the a faintly drawn, red glowing line, she bit it's wrist. The arm started thrashing about wildly as Raven bit her teeth into it. Inky black blood was drawn, and Raven felt the taste of almonds fill her mouth. She spit out the blood, and the shadowy hand with it, and watched as the hand recoiled back into the symbols.

"No!" Blud shouted, watching as their demon retreated. "Stop interfering!" he spat at her.

"Let me out of here and I will," Raven returned. Her voice didn't sound like hers anymore.

The clawing feeling was back, but this time she could feel it on her stomach, along her ribs, on her chest, on her breasts, clawing at her heart and throat. She breathed deep, trying to calm herself, trying to meditate herself back into a peaceful state of mind. But the claws…

She scratched at her skin, trying to make the feeling go away, but it only intensified it. She could feel her own nails biting at her skin, sharper than they had been before. One claw mark gone only to be replaced with another one.

"Blud…" Raven tried one last time, "this will not end well for you."

_______________________________

Slade rushed along the tunnels of the cave, following the sounds of screams and chants. It was easy to find his way, even in the pitch dark. Blud couldn't have made himself anymore obvious unless he'd lit the way with neon signs. Slade's boots thudded up against the rock, like a drumbeat in his ears. It added with the ceremonial chants, and he could feel himself almost be pulled into a hallucinatory state.

He was far too skilled for that. He pushed past that feeling, sharpening his mind as he went over sums in his head. At the last bend, he could see the orange and red light from the candles and hear Blud's voice as clear as ever. When he finally came into view of it, he saw that their alter was burning a bright red, the color bleeding into the air, with growls echoing through the caverns of the cave, adding to the eerie sounding chants. He stopped to admire the sight, but only for a split second.

He walked up behind Blud, meaning to tell him of the Titan's escape, but he figured there was no need to. He had done his job, he had been paid quite handsomely, now was the time to leave before the worst came crashing down on him.

But he was intrigued.

Slade hated to admit it, but he was curious as to what was happening. He'd only seen a handful of demon summonings in his lifetime, but this was the only one he'd ever actually seen have any effect. The red glow, the growls, the shadows, the magic that you could so easily sense in the air…

Yes, this was quite the show.

As he watched, his regret faded away. Ever since he had sold Raven's personal history to him, Slade knew he wouldn't use it to its full potential. But Blud had paid a large sum of money for any information about her and her demon heritage, and Slade willingly gave him all the files once the bank transfer was complete. But as he listened to Blud plan, he knew that he had made a bad choice. Blud was a fool, he soon came to realize, and any street kid would have done better. But then again, any street kid wouldn't have two million dollars on them.

But now, as he watched Blud put Raven's demon blood to work, he finally thought to himself that Blud wasn't entirely stupid.

"Well done, Blud," Slade said aloud, his voice resonating through the cavern.

Blud stopped chanting for just a moment, his head turning to look at Slade. "What…?" he started to ask. "What are…?" He put two and two together. "The Titans?! Where are they?"

Blud stepped away from the alter to hiss at Slade. "You said you'd keep them locked up."

"Apparently you need stronger chains," Slade told him.

"Those were the strongest chains ever engineered!" Blud hissed back. "Specifically designed to hold the Titans. Un-meltable and unbreakable, with with rods anchored forty feet deep into the rock wall. How could they have escaped?"

Slade's eye drifted from Blud to directly behind him. "You might want to pay more attention to your ritual," Slade told him.

"Why…?"

Raven lunged at him, the barrier shattering behind her as she locked onto Blud, her clawed hands wrapping around his throat. She smiled, and he saw nothing but sharpened fangs in her mouth. Her eyes were as red as the light that had been pouring from the circle, and the darkness around her cloaked Blud's entire field of vision in shadows.

She said no words, but raised her hand, meaning to tear out his throat.

"Don't!" Blud said, his eyes wide with terror. "Don't!"

His hand shot out, his fist closing around her wrist before she could stab him with her nails. But Raven was strong, stronger than he had ever imagined, and even with him using every bit of his strength, Raven's claws lowered until she was stretching at his skin.

"Slade!" Blud shouted, knowing that he must still be near, "do something!"

Just as Blud was certain Raven was about to slice open his skin, Raven was yanked back, Slade throwing her across the room. Raven never hit the ground, but floated off of it, hovering in the air. The darkness swam around her, and she swam in the darkness. Her red eyes locked onto Slade, and she charged at him, fangs bared. Slade's eye widened, and he immediately took a fighting stance. But nothing could have prepared him for the force of Raven's blow. It wasn't her dark powers that hit him; those he had fought before and he knew what to expect. It was her hands, her fingers, that struck him, straight in the chest as if trying to open up his body and claw her way to his heart.

Slade gave a swift kick upwards, his foot hitting Raven and pushing her away from him, giving him time to retreat. He backed up several paces, and he hated it; he shouldn't be defensive, offensive was always more his style.

Raven lunged again, this time mixing her dark powers in with her hands. Slade blocked them easily, though he could feel himself becoming bruised from fighting her. He blocked every jab and strike she tried to land on him, leaving his armor torn and his arm scratched and bloody.

As if the beating from Starfire wasn't enough.

When Raven tried to bite at him, her sharp teeth snapping only a few inches from his face, that was when he knew he needed to get out of here.

Slade punched her straight on the head, something no ordinary human could have walked away from, but something that was able to stun Raven long enough for him to make his retreat. As he ran into the shadows, looking behind him to make sure he wasn't followed, her heard Blud call after him, "Get back here and fight, you coward!"

Slade hated being called a coward, and he was already planning on making Blud regret saying that, one of these days.

Meanwhile, Blud still had a raging demon on his hands. One that was thirsty for blood and not in control of her actions. Blud wondered if this was the demon he had called forth, or if it were just an unfortunate side-effect of the ritual, and the true demon had yet to come forth.

Blud turned to his followers. "Keep chanting!" he told them, but none of them listened. They had all backed into corners, hoping that the shadows would hide them from Raven's wrath.

Blud turned back to face Raven, who was able to charge at him. He took a step back, then another one, until the alter hit his back. He straightened as the stone hit his spine and a shiver ran up and down his body. Swallowing his fear, he said in his most authoritative voice, "Raven. Stop."

Raven did, momentarily.

She didn't lunge at him, but she came closer, her legs mimicking the motions of walking despite her lack of contact with the ground. She was crouched like a predator, about to pounce on her prey, but Blud stood tall. He had to be. Fear was the only thing keeping him from flinching now. Raven's teeth shone in the candlelight, the points making Blud want to hide.

"You," he pointed a finger at her, and she noticed it was shaking, "you will do as I say, for I am the one who summoned you."

That earned him a hard smack to his arm, her nails scratching him. The cuts were shallow, though, so the damage wasn't too bad. Blud leaned backwards, wanting to get as far away from Raven as possible. He didn't care if he had to crawl over the alter and dig through the solid stone to do it.

Before he could try, Raven grabbed the cuff of his robe, tearing the fabric as she yanked him close to her face. She looked him straight in the eyes, the red glow from her eyes threatening to blind him. "Change me back," she hissed at him, her voice gravelly. "Now."

It took a moment for Blud to process her words.

"Ch-ch-change?" he stuttered. "Change you back?" he asked. Then he said, "No," glowering at her. "You will not ruin my plans. You are either mine to command, or something just in the way. When I summon Trigon, you won't even matter anymore."

Raven tightened her fist, and shook him violently, snapping his head back and forth again. "You will do it," Raven commanded, the threat clear in her voice. "Or else."

Blud only said, "Release me, girl."

Raven did as he said; she threw Brother Blud all the way across the room, his body hitting the solid rock hard and then falling down to the ground with another sickening thud. Raven spotted the robed people in the shadows then, all hiding from her. She could sense them, sense their fear, their regret, their dying hope. She could sense every single emotion from them, hear every single rapid heartbeat. She flew over to one of them, capturing their shoulders in her claws.

"You," she commanded, "you change me back."

"I…I don't know how!" he said.

Raven threw him down on the floor, then looked around at the rest of them. "Do any of you know how to change me back?" she asked. Her voice was getting worse by the moment. None of them came forward, no one knew how to do it. And to be honest, Raven didn't know either. The ritual had been so messed up that she didn't even know what had gone wrong, and she supposed that another error could only reverse what Blud had done.

Before Raven could howl at the ceiling, letting all of her rage and grief and bitterness out, she heard the familiar voice of her leader.

"Titans! Go!"


	22. Chapter 22

Raven hissed at them as they approached. Their feelings hit her full on, and she felt their mixture of confusion and determination and rage and sadness. All sorts of emotions mixing together, creating a terrible, unique feeling that clawed along her ribcage and mixed in with her blood.

Starfire got to her first. She slammed Raven back against the cave wall, creating a crater behind her back. "Raven?" Starfire called out, "Do you not know me?"

"I…know…you…" Raven croaked out, her voice cracking as she fought to keep the worst of her demon contained. She was failing at that; Blud has summoned a demon alright, and now she was suffering for it.

"Please, Raven, do the snapping out of this!" Starfire told her. Her eyes were pleading, and Raven wanted to do just as she asked. But the demon inside of her wouldn't allow that.

"I want to…" Raven said, right before clawing at Starfire's face. Scratches were bright against her skin, but they were shallow that only tiny pinpricks of blood welled up on the surface of her skin. Even then, Raven was holding back.

Starfire instinctively returned the attack with her starbolts, not stopping to realize what she had done. Raven hit the back of the cave wall again, deepening the crater she had made.

"Sorry," Starfire muttered.

Raven made to lunge at Starfire again, but Cyborg hit her with a low frequency sonic blast, pushing her back up against the wall. He hated attacking her, but he hated Raven attacking them more. He needed to do this to keep all of them safe, so he reasoned with himself. Raven's eyes darted over to him, and she flew at him, ready to take him down too. Starfire rushed after her, grabbing her by the waist and throwing her off course. They missed crashing into Cyborg by only a few inches, and she and Raven plowed into the rock on the far side of them.

Raven hit Starfire on the chin, trying to push her away from her, trying to free herself. If nothing else, pushing her chin up would expose her neck to her, and she could bite down on it, making her submit.

"No…" Raven whispered, realizing just what was happening in her head. "No…please…"

Starfire heard her words, and her eyes softened. "We will be doing the helping, Raven," she pleaded. "If you would just let us."

"Make them fix it," Raven growled at her, her demonic side taking over again. "The…monks…"

Her dark powers collided into Starfire's body, sending her backwards and into Beast Boy, who was still in his pterodactyl shape. They both fell out of the air and onto the ground. Starfire couldn't feel angry at her, now that she knew that Raven was trying her best to fight it. Even when her muscles started throbbing and her skin started stinging, she knew that this wasn't Raven's fault.

She didn't want this anymore than they did.

She wanted it even less than they did.

But here she was, forced to relive the worse days of her life. If this day ever ended, Raven swore, she would never allow this to happen to her again. She didn't care about the promise she made to her mother or to Azar all those years ago. She wouldn't let this happen again.

Another low frequency sonic blast hit Raven, and as she was caught in its wake, she felt the intensity increasing. Cyborg was slowly turning the frequency up, trying his best to subdue her without hurting her too much. It was working; Raven bent over, her hands on her head.

"Sorry about this, Rae," he muttered.

He turned the frequency up another notch. Raven hissed through her teeth as pain raced through her nerves. She looked up at him, her emotions mixed. Both sides of her were coming out; the demon side which wanted to tear him limb from limb and crush him beneath her thumb, and the true Raven, who looked at him with teary, pitiful eyes, wanting nothing more for him to stop. Cyborg almost did, feeling horrible about attacking one of his best friends, but he steeled himself against that impulse, knowing that this was the only way to help her.

"Starfire, Beast Boy," Cyborg yelled at them, "grab her arms."

"You fools!" shouted Blud from where he lay on the stone. "She cannot be contained! She is more powerful than all of you put together! Than all of humanity! She will never—"

"Shut up!" Beast Boy screamed at him, and grabbed Raven's arm.

She tried to throw him off, but he held fast. "Heeeeey!" he said as he was swung around the cavern. "Raveeeen, I'm just trying to heeeeelp!"

Beast Boy was thrown off of her then. He hit the stone with a grunt, rolling away from her. He moaned in pain; his head was spinning and he felt like he was going to throw up any minute. He put a hand to his head and closed his eyes. "Ow," was all he managed to say.

"This isn't working," Cyborg said as he and Starfire struggled to contain Raven. As the seconds ticked by, her nails and teeth were growing longer and sharper, and her eyes were glowing a demonic red, all four of them gazing out at the world with pure rage and hatred.

"Robin, help us out man!" Cyborg said as Raven tore off his robotic arm. He scurried away, racing to pick it up and reattach it. "Robin, come on!" he shouted, then looked around. "Robin! Where the hell are you?"

_______________________________________________

 

Robin didn't stay with the others. Instead he took off after Slade, chasing him up the cave tunnels, wanting to know what part he played in all this. His gut was twisted into a thousand knots, and he knew that only Slade's capture would ease his pains.

Their footsteps echoed throughout the tunnels of the cave, and Robin followed them as best as he could. The tunnels were a labyrinth, and though Robin could occasionally see Slade's shadow in the faintest light, he was losing him.

"Slade!" The name torn from his throat. "Slade! Come fight, you coward!"

Slade didn't take the bait as Robin had hoped.

He was breathing hard and a stitch was forming in his side. Robin tried his best to power through it, but he felt like his legs were on fire and his feet were falling off and his chest would explode. He had no choice.

His steps slowed until he was stumbling. Right before he crashed into the stone wall in front of him, he put his hand out and he fell into it, making his wrist throb with pain. He panted, gasping for air, bent over with his good hand on his side. His ears thumped with his heartbeat and he could hear the blood pulsing through his veins. So he didn't hear what came next.

A fist struck him in the face. Robin cried out in surprise. He stumbled back, falling against the rock walls and scraping his skin through his torn uniform. Through the haze of his sight he saw Slade, towing over him, his fist still raised, ready to strike again.

"Coward, am I?" he asked.

Robin snarled and launched himself at Slade, swinging his fists. Slade dodged them easily. Robin just kept swinging, punching nothing but air as Slade expertly avoided him. "Damn you!" Robin shouted, and made to punch Slade directly in the face. Before his fist could made contact, Slade caught Robin's fist in his hand. He squeezed it until Robin could feel his knuckles pop.

"Damn you!" he said again, and kicked Slade in the stomach, sending him backwards. Robin cradled his hand as best he could. Now both of his hands were damaged. He didn't care. The pain was distant to him, a dull, forgettable throb. He stood as tall as he could, sizing Slade up for a second before launching forward again, kicking Slade in the stomach again and again.

As Slade bent over, trying to protect himself, Robin kicked him directly in the head, his steel-toed shoes clanging up against the metal of Slade's mask. Slade stumbled to the side, shaking his head. The sound was echoing in his skull, giving him a headache and making him see spots. He barely saw Robin's foot come at him.

He leaned backwards, and Robin's leg swung back to the ground. With a feral yell, Robin kicked directly at Slade's neck. A part of his body that wasn't protected.

With a forceful kick, Robin stuck Slade's unguarded neck, and without a sound he crumpled to the ground.

Robin looked at his fallen foe. He was breathing harder than before, his body struggling to get enough air. Sweat was streaming down his skin. Every muscle in his body was taut and sore. But the sight of Slade broken and defeated made him forget all that. He stood up as tall as he could, and walked closer to Slade.

He nudged Slade with the toe of his boot. When Slade didn't move, he walked closer. Slade was eerily still. No ragged breathing, no twitching, no moans or grunts of pain.

Robin stood there for what seemed like an eternity, just looking at Slade. For all his effort, for all his planning, he didn't know what to do now. He supposed he could drag Slade back to the Titans, but considering the battle he had left them to, what good would it do?

Minutes ticked by before Robin finally realized that Slade wasn't breathing.

Panic surged through him.

"Oh god," Robin breathed, backing up from the body. "Did I…?" he mumbled to himself. His blood turned cold in his veins. "No," he rasped, and rushed forward. He tapped Slade with his boot, saying, "Slade. Get up. Get up, you coward, get up!" Nothing.

Robin's heart started racing again.

No. He wouldn't have this.

"Slade!" he shouted, getting down onto his knees. He put his hand to Slade's chest, searching. Then, he felt it. A barely-there heartbeat.

Robin breathed a sigh of relief.

Slade's hand shot out, closing around Robin's neck. Robin yelled in shock, but it came out as a strangled cry. He put his fists around Slade's wrist, trying to loosen Slade's grip. Robin dug his boots into Slade's ribs, pushing himself away from the man.

"Foolish boy," Slade hissed.

Dark spots started flashing around the corners of Robin's visions. He could barely breathe, barely think. Slade, sensing how close he was to losing consciousness, gripped his neck tighter, a malicious smile crossing his face.

Robin remembered his utility belt. He reached down in it, clumsily grabbed a bird-a-rang, and in a single swift move, he slashed out at Slade's arm. Slade cried out and released Robin, clutching his sliced arm in his hand. Robin had slit one of Slade's wrists, and Slade was hastily trying to stop the blood flow.

Robin moved far away from him, watching and waiting as Slade took out some string and started tying it around himself, making a make-shift tourniquet for himself. Robin released a couple of smoke bombs just as Slade was almost finished tying the rope off. Slade's mask filtered out the smoke, and Robin cursed himself for being so stupid.

"Don't try anything, Slade!" Robin warned.

"Foolish boy," Slade said again.

Just as Slade started walking towards Robin, the whole cavern shook, and shadows started to swirl around their feet. Slade ignored it all, still advancing on Robin. Robin backed away, his feet slowly being swallowed by the growing mystic shadows. Robin reached into his utility belt, reaching for a knife. Or a sai. Or a bo staff. Anything. He didn't care, so long as it was something.

Another quake shook the cavern. Gravel and dust fell on their heads. Small chunks of broken off rock clattered on the ground. Robin tripped on a rumbling rock, and he fell onto his back, scraping his skin even more. He looked up at Slade, watching as the blurry figure slowly advanced on him.

Slade took a smoke bomb from his utility belt, about to throw it onto Robin, when the mystic shadows rose higher and completely swallowed Robin. Slade threw the smoke bomb anyway, and the gas flooded the unshadowed portion of the cavern.

Robin rolled away from the smoke, putting his cape up to his nose and mouth. He rolled until he hit solid wall. He stayed there and waited. He could just barely see Slade's feet through the mystic shadows. They were washed in black and purple, his silhouette wavering.

But slowly Slade's feet started to make their way towards him. But Robin could see by the way he walked that Slade was uncertain. As quietly as he could, Robin took a set of earplugs and a sonic blaster from his belt.

He slipped the earplugs into his ears and thought to himself, 'Sweet dreams, you bastard.'

With that, he tossed the sonic blaster out into the center of the cavern.

A screeching, high-pitched, impossibly loud sound surrounded them, and Robin had to put his hands over his ears. He curled up in a ball, just trying to block the sound out. The noise was making the rocks above them loosen.

He didn't see Slade fall to his knees, screaming in pain, his hands clamped over his ears, his eye squeezed shut and his muscles trembling before they gave out. He fell flat on his face, unable to take anymore, and landed with a hard thump that sent gravelly dust up into the air in a cloud.

With that, the noise stopped.

Robin laid there for a long time, the ringing in his ears not subsiding for several minutes. When he was finally able to look around, he saw Slade in the mystic shadows with him, passed out. Blood was trickling from him, staining his clothes and armor and pooling beneath his cheek. The shadows deepened around him, seeming drawn to the blood.

Robin, sluggish and weary, slowly put the pieces together. Slade was now deaf. Despite everything, he smiled to himself, proud of this. "I beat you," he whispered; he couldn't hear his voice.

Without wasting anymore time, Robin went to work on handcuffing and restraining Slade. When he was done, he clapped his hands together, gave him one last look, and went back to go help his friends deal with Raven and Brother Blud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so very incredibly sorry this took me so long to get out here. I know that this is bad. I am really so sorry. Please forgive me :(


	23. Chapter 23

As the fight raged on, two of Brother Blud's devotees crept towards him, finally brave enough to help him up. Blud grunted in pain as he felt their arms loop around his own and pull him to his feet. He could barely stand; he stumbled back, falling and clutching at the robe of one of his devotees. They helped to lift him up again, and this time they kept their arms around him, securing him in their hold.

"Praise unto you," he mumbled.

He looked up to see the four Titans struggling above them. His eyes lingered on Raven. Powerful, demonic Raven. How he had not known about the power she possessed, nor the lineage she was spawned from…it was criminal. His eyes followed her, watching as the demon slowly overtook her. As she fought and injured her supposed friends. As she let her blood-thirst consume her and become the all-powerful demon god that he needed.

"Perfect," he said as he watched her.

"What should we do?" asked the devotee to his right, a woman named Maria

"Let's not be hasty," he replied. "I wish to watch her prowess."

Maria glanced over at the devotee to Blud's left, a man named Tobias. They recognized within each other the slightest bit of doubt, but then it disappeared. It was replaced by complete faith in Blud and his teachings. They looked back at the Titans, feeling as Blud tensed between them. He got stronger as he watched the scene before him, willing his legs to support them and his fingers to grip hard at their ceremonial robes.

"You two," Blud said after Raven had thrown Cyborg and Starfire into the stone walls all the way across the cavern, "as soon as the green one goes down, we take the demon."

"Yes, Brother Blud," they replied in unison.

Starfire and Cyborg did not move. They were still awake, their eyes alert but their bodies too far sore to get up and continue to fight. They hated fighting Raven, but they knew she needed to be controlled. Starfire, in a final effort, craned her head and started shooting starbolts at Raven.

This distracted Raven just long enough for a green pterodactyl to swoop in and claw her. As Raven turned to lash out at Beast Boy, he flew around her, clawing her skin again before beating her with his wing. Raven plummeted towards the ground, but stopped just before she was slammed into the center of the dais again. Beast Boy plummeted with her, closing his wings and free falling down onto Raven.

Talons outstretched, he fell on Raven, pushing her down onto the ground and closing his claws around her. Raven struggled against his tight hold, her eyes alight with fury.

"Let go!" she said. Her voice was terrifying, but Beast Boy didn't let her go. Instead, he tightened her grip on her, squeezing until her skin was bruised and cut from his talons.

"LET GO!" she screeched, and dark magic came pouring from her hands. Thick shadows rose up against the pterodactyl and started coiling around him.

Beast Boy resisted, snapping at the coils with his sharp beak. The shadows dissolved with each snap. Still they kept coming. He screeched, and spread his wings. The shadows clung to him like tar, but Beast Boy beat his wings as hard as he could and took off into the air, trying to distance himself from the pool of mystic shadows on the floor beneath them.

Raven snapped and bit at him, sinking her fangs into the pterodactyl's feet. Beast Boy winced in pain but that was all.

Still, the shadows beneath them grew, thickening, deepening, and the room was slowly becoming consuming with Raven's dark powers as she struggled to free herself.

Brother Blud and his devotees panicked at the dark magic that was slowly consuming them. They backed away, trying in vain to get away from it. Some of them ran towards the exits, not wanting to endure anymore.

"Stay!" Brother Blud shouted after his followers. "Stay and be witness. She cannot hurt you! You are under my protection!" Blud told them all.

His devotees slowed, but two of them left, running from the cavern, the demons, the Titans, and the cult.

Brother Blud growled as he saw the two leave.

"Shall we go after them?" asked Maria.

"No," Blud told her. "To each their own. If they are not willing to sacrifice their lives, then they are no followers of mine."

"Understood, your greatness," Maria replied.

Raven's fight was starting to slow. She didn't kick and scream as much, and her moves became sluggish as she continued to struggle. Beast Boy loosened his grip, not wanting to hurt her much more. Raven thrashed, feeling the slack of his talons, but he gripped her tight again. But in that instance, Raven's arm had shifted just enough that she could fight more easily.

"Brother…?" asked Tobias at Blud's side. "What if she doesn't win?"

"Nonsense!" Blud said angrily. "It is preordained. This fight will turn out in our favor. When Raven defeats the…pterodactyl…she will be weak and easily overcome. Have patience, my brother," he said.

"We haven't the time for patience," said a voice from the shadows.

Brother Blud and his followers all turned to the sound, recognizing it as the voice of Mother Mayhem.

"Mother?" Tobias asked. "W-what?"

The surrounding devotees quickly bowed, then turned their attention back to the struggle between Beast Boy and Raven. Despite what Brother Blud had told them, they were positive that it would be Beast Boy who would triumph. Raven would fall unconscious and her friends would take her away and their cult would no longer have its fetish.

"Why are you here?" Brother Blud asked her.

"Because we cannot wait any longer. The congregation is assembled. The worshippers are bent at the knees, their heads pressed to the ground, waiting for you and your devotees. You swore to them the God Trigon, and time is wearing thin."

"I do have the God Trigon," Brother Blud replied. "Look just there," he said, pointing up to Beast Boy and Raven. "That there is the daughter of the God Trigon, and through her he will be risen."

Mother Mayhem shook her head. "I don't think so. Brother, I—"

"I do not want to hear it," he shot back at her. Beside Brother Blud, Tobias and Maria shifted uncomfortably. They bowed their heads and held their tongues, silently saying the prayers of their cult.

"But you need to hear it. Some of our most devout followers say that they have felt the death of Trigon. They say that he is withering away and that he cannot be brought to this earthly realm." She leaned in closer to Brother Blud. "Some even say that he has already risen, and that he is already among us."

"Of course he is already among us," Brother Blud said. "He is a god who has come to earth. And look there, at the Demon's Daughter; she is the God Trigon reborn. Through her, Trigon shall—"

"No," Mother Mayhem said. "Trigon shan't. Trigon shan't ascend to this mortal plane and rule dominion over all. Because that has already happened, and he has failed."

Mother Mayhem's words were heavy in the air. The distant screeches and grunts of the fight behind them seemed to grown distant and blurry.

"It does not matter," Brother Blud said at last. "We will take Raven, Daughter of Trigon, and it will be good enough. Better, even!" Blud glanced at either side of him, trying to guess what his followers were thinking. He did not sense any sign of hesitation or doubt in their bodies, and he decided that it didn't matter if they did. Only the most devout were worthy of him.

"Shall I?" Mother Mayhem asked, holding up the chemical gun.

"You shall," Brother Blud said with a nod.

Without another word, Mother Mayhem spun around and shot the canister into the air. Smoke spewed out of it, filling the cavern in a hazy, nauseous fog. Mother Mayhem pulled her hood over her face, blocking out the smoke from her nose and mouth, and the rest of the devotees followed suit.

On the ground, Starfire and Cyborg lifted their stills-spinning heads to see the smoke starting to consume the air around them.

"No," Cyborg mumbled. "No." He tried pushing himself up, but he just did't have the energy. His muscles screamed, his machinery creaked, and his head spun. He collapsed back onto the ground. Not knowing what else to do, he put his face to the ground and covered his head with his arms, hoping that that would be enough to keep from being intoxicated by the gas.

Starfire, blinking, could barely see Cyborg anymore. The smoke stung her eyes, and she coughed. Curling up into a fetal position on the ground, she squeezed her eyes shut, and put her hands over her mouth and nose. Still, she could smell the horrible smoke. It made her eyes water and her whole body feel heavy. In desperation, she took her purple top and pulled it up, making the fabric cover her face. She didn't care anymore; she just wanted to get the smoke out of her face.

"Cyborg," Starfire moaned, eyes opening a sliver. She tried to look at him through the smoke and tears, trying to keep her eyes open. Her lids felt heavy. "Cyborg? Are you okay?"

She got no response.

"Cyborg?" she asked a bit louder. "Cyborg? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Star," he finally answered, he voice muffled from the ground. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just don't inhale the smoke," he told her.

"I shan't," Starfire said, closing her eyes again and pressing the fabric even harder up against her nose.

Above them all, high in the air, their struggle amplified by the cavern, Beast Boy and Raven still fought. But their movements grew slower and sluggish. Beast Boy still continued to flap his wings, slower and slower, losing altitude and his grip on Raven loosening. Raven was limp in his talons, her exhaustion getting the better of her. As Beast Boy loosened his talons, blood started flowing back into her limbs, and she twitched her fingers.

Looking up at him with her red eyes, she was about to strike again when suddenly she slipped from his talons. Too disoriented to levitate, she hit the ground within a split second, the smoke parting beneath her and a resonating thud filling the ears of Brother Blud.

Without taking a breath, he pulled up his hood, peering out at the scene before him. Raven lay asleep in the center of the dais, but Beast Boy was still awake. He landed next to her, and nudged her with his beak.

"Sorry, Rae," he muttered, and made to pick her up again. He started to loop his talons around her again, gentler this time, but was struck in the head. "Ow!" he cried out, stumbling on his claws.

Beast Boy spun around to see a single devotee behind him, several large rocks in their hands. The devotee hurled another rock at Beast Boy, striking him directly in the head.

"Hey, cut it out!" Beast Boy shrieked at the devotee. With a feral cry, spreading his wings wide and clicking his sharp talons, he made his way over the his assailant.

Panicking, the devotee started throwing rocks at Beast Boy as quick and as hard as they could, sweat beading their brow and arms trembling. Beast Boy was struck in the beak and in the eye, on his wing and on his chest.

Beast Boy reached the devotee and grabbed them in his claws. His talons tightened, slicing the robes open and leaving bruises and cuts all over their body. Beast Boy lifted the devotee to eye level, giving a menacing shriek directly in their face. The devotee was clearly trembling, terrified out of their mind.

Just as Beast Boy was about to throw them across the room, they lost consciousness, the smoke having done its job. Beast Boy stared at them before setting them back down on the floor.

Just as Beast Boy turned back around to pick up Raven, another rock struck him on the head. A fairly large rock. Just as darkness was starting to creep up on him, he tilted around just in time to see the wobbling devotee shout to Brother Blud, "He is down, Brother! Please, take her!"

Beast Boy transformed back into a human just before he lost consciousness with the rest of his team.

Brother Blud peered out from under his hood again, Mother Mayhem and the rest of them following suit. Blud recognized the devotee laying on the ground. "Rest well, Brother," he said to the man. "You have served us well."

He spoke to the rest of them. "Quick. Grab the Demon's Daughter and follow me. Our purpose here is done. We must move."

Without question, without seeing, the devotees did as they were told. Maria and Tobias did not leave Blud's side, however. They still supported him, since his legs were still injured. Mother Mayhem came up beside them, her hood drawn down over her face. "Do you know the way?" she asked him.

"Of course," he replied.

"Do they know the way?" she asked, referring to the devotees that were supporting him.

"They should," Blud replied.

"We do," Maria bravely said. Tobias nodded in agreement, though no one could see it.

"But do you know the way without sight?" Mother Mayhem asked them.

Tobias and Maria were quiet for a minute before saying, "No."

"Of course you don't," Mother Mayhem replied quietly. "Follow the sound of my footsteps," she instructed them all. "And don't get lost."

With Raven gathered up by them, and the remaining Titans huddled up on the floor barely able to open their eyes, they left the cavernous chamber, following Mother Mayhem and Brother Blud up through the labyrinth of caves and tunnels that burrowed through the entire mountain.

Just as the sound of footsteps was gone from the room, Robin burst in, panting heavily. The smoke was still lingering in the air, but the nausea and drowsiness hit him immediately. He reached into his belt and took out a face mask, quickly putting it over his face before the smoke could affect him any more. Stumbling into the room, worn out and severely bruised, he saw three of his teammates all laying unconscious on the ground. They all looked like they were in defensive positions, trying to protect themselves from attack.

"No," Robin said. "Damn it! Fucking damn it!" he shouted, kicking a rock and making it skip over the stone floor.

"Robin?" he heard a voice through the eerie stillness.

"Star?" he asked, hope filling his body. He rushed over to where she lay, curled up in the fetal position and her top pulled over her nose and mouth. Getting on his knees in front of her, he brushed some hair out of her eyes and looked at her. He could see evidence that their fight had been a long and hard one, but at least she wasn't unconscious.

"Star," he asked, "what happened?"

Starfire looked at him blankly, trying to understand what he was saying. The words swam in front of her, spinning around in the front of her mind. "Happened." She mumbled the word through the fabric, as if it could help her recall what had happened.

"What happened?" she asked again, closing her eyes.

"No, Star," Robin said, shaking her shoulder. "Stay with me."

"I am not dying," Starfire said, her words slurred. "There…there was smoke. And I felt bad."

Robin, trying his best to hear her, pulled her up into a sitting position, resting her back against his arm. He didn't care if her chest was bare; he just needed to make sure that she was alright and to figure out what happened.

"There was smoke. Most likely chemical tranquilizing smoke. What else?" he asked.

"I…I don't know…" she said. Then her eyes flew open, grabbing Robin's uniform in his fists. "Raven. They took Raven."

"Who?" Robin asked. "Brother Blud? The cult people? Them?"

Starfire nodded. "Yes, them. And someone they called 'Mother.'"

"Mother?" Robin asked, bewildered. "Mother who? Mother May-Eye?"

"No," Starfire said, slowly shaking her head. "Not her. Someone worse. Brother Blud knew her well. She…was…"

"Come on, Star, stay awake," Robin pleaded.

"I will, I will," she told him. "I just…need rest." She closed her eyes again and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "They went out that tunnel," Starfire said, not bothering to gesture. "They said they…needed to be somewhere."

"What tunnel? Where did they need to be?"

"I don't know…" Starfire whispered.

"Somewhere with a lot of other people," said Cyborg, lifting his head off of the ground. "That mother woman Starfire was talking about. She said that there were a bunch of worshippers and stuff. Wherever they've gone, there's gonna be a lot of people. I know that much."

"Cyborg!" Robin and Starfire said, their eyes lighting up.

Robin reached over and pulled him into a barely-a-hug hug. Cyborg groaned with the effort of moving, but he didn't mind. He needed to be sharp. He looked down at his robotic arm, pressed a button, and checked his vitals. _**'39% capacity'**_ it read. 

"I'm almost back," Cyborg told Robin.

"How long before we can…"

"Robin, man, listen. I don't think we can keep this up. We've been chasing Raven, and Raven can handle herself. We need time to get our energy back up, to heal and recover. We've been fighting fires and monsters and all that. We need time."

Robin wanted to put up a fight, to argue with him and say that he was wrong. But at the same time, he didn't. He knew Cyborg was right. He was badly injured. Cyborg and Starfire both were bruised from fighting and disoriented from the smoke. And Beast Boy was still unconscious. They couldn't chase after Raven. Not now. They couldn't go back out to help Jump City. Not now.

They may not all have been humans, but they had their limits. Right now, they needed medicine and rest.

"Okay," Robin said. "Okay. Let's take some time."


End file.
